The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - 0 Players On BBall Roster On VirginiaSports.com; Odom Bringing 4 Assistants From VCU To UVA

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: 0 Players On BBall Roster On VirginiaSports.com Odom Bringing 4 Assistants From VCU To UVA Which Bennett/Sanchez Assistants Lose Jobs? Where Is Isaac McKneely Going To Transfer To? Any Hoopers Who Entered Portal Returning? Rebuild or Reload: What Does Odom Need To Do? Will Fans Know How Much Players Make In NIL? Spring Football Practice – Quietest Start Ever? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

guys welcome to the Jerry and Jerry show my name is Jerry Miller and thank you kindly for joining us on a spring Tuesday morning in downtown Charlottesville we are less than two miles away from the John John Paul Jones arena and less than two miles away from Scott Stadium. And very interestingly, the seasons are very much underway for both Virginia football and for the men's basketball team. One program has a head coach in Tony Elliott who is fighting for his job.

He enters a year where it's make or break for a man that is unquestionably and undoubtedly on the hot seat, and that's Tony Elliott. The spring football game is just a couple of weeks from now and this team, this program is in a quiet period. The basketball program has dominated the headlines and the news cycle and a 180 degree turn of events when compared to football. You got a basketball coach who is absolutely the talk and toast of the community in Ryan Odom.

He's taken trips to Mincers, he's eating bacon cheeseburgers at Riverside, he's giving congratulatory live video mentions to Tony Bennett who won a big time award. And he's trying to fill his roster. And speaking of rosters, I encourage you, the viewer and listener, to check out VirginiaSports.com and click the men's basketball roster. I'm looking at it right now.

There is not a single player listed on the 2025-2026 Virginia men's basketball roster on VirginiaSports.com. Judah Wickhauer, if we can go to the studio and we can see the on the 2025-2026 Virginia Men's Basketball roster on VirginiaSports.com. Judah Wickhauer, if we can go to the studio camera, please. Judah Wickhauer is the director and producer of the show. And then a two shot as we welcome a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Radcliffe, the namesake of JerryRadcliffe.com,

a man who just completed his 51st straight ACC basketball tournament. We start each show with scatter shooting with Jerry Hootie-Rackliffe. My friend, what is on your mind today? Well, it is kind of mind-blowing what you just said. You look at the roster and there's no one there. If that's not a sign of the times we're living in, nothing is. And the last two years prior, they essentially had to rebuild the entire program.

Not totally from scratch, but darn near it. And I'm not sure they did a very good job of it, putting those rosters together. So it's going to be a challenge for Ryan Odom and his staff to put together a, not only a complete new basketball team, but one that can compete in the ACC pronto. I mean, I think people are expecting with the influx of NIL money that this team should be an upper echelon ACC team even if it is a rebuild. It's interesting in 2025 college basketball with the money that is associated with NIL,

the patience offered a brand new coach for a rebuild is short. It's a short leash. It's very little patience. And the expectation is Ryan Odom and Odom acknowledged this in his press conference of I want to build a top 10 team. I understand the pressures of following a legend. And he's trying to staff or he's trying to roster his program with guys who have talent. I mean, Nick Davidson, the big man from Nevada, he's six foot 10, he's the number two center in the portal. I mean, he's also being recruited by Texas and Notre Dame and Washington and Clebson, which are big time programs.

But outside of Davidson, the Nevada center, some of the guys that have been rumor milled to UVA, branding jettings, the point guard from Richmond and St. Christopher's, he had very little playing time. He's going after guys from high point and the in the portal, Kaysa Giffa, from France, from Paris, and just Lin Bodo be as hoodieudi Ratcliffe alluded to there's some NIL opportunity right there. That's a no-brainer. That's my favorite part of your column right there. When I was reading your column I generally laughed out loud when you're talking about that. But I'll ask you this question. Where's the star power in the portal? Well, I'm sure there are a lot of other people on that list that haven't surfaced at this point,

but my God, there's so many people in the portal. It's probably trying to get a drink of water out of a fire hose, trying to figure out who you want to go after and who might fit, not only trying to figure out who you want to go after and who might fit. Not only on the basketball side of it, but academically and I wouldn't, I don't know how these coaches do it. It's, it's mind boggling to me to, I mean, there were over 500 guys in the portal on the very first day. There's gotta be well over a thousand by now, easily. And, you know, how do you go about that?

I mean, how much time do you have in a day and how many people do you have looking at these, all these possibilities of people that you might want on your roster? It's staggering to me to try to figure that out. VCU news or news from Richmond and VCU Ryan Odom is going to bring a bevy of assistant coaches with him to Charlottesville. We'll highlight that news, which was spotlighted on Jerry Ratcliffe.com.

We'll talk Isaac McNeely and the emergence of Tennessee the Volunteers. I mean, good night, McNeely and Tennessee Orange. That seems like a very good fit for the young man, especially with some of the sharpshooters they've produced from the past. We're going to talk the replacement of an entire roster.

We'll talk on today's show what's going to happen to the Coleman's and the Wilkins and the Kyle guys if Ryan Odom does bring, well is bringing four assistant coaches with him from VCU. We'll talk Tony Bennett winning big time awards and his retirement still winning awards and we'll take your questions and comments which I'm seeing all over the feed.

Hootie, why don't we start with Ryan Odom? Now what, a week and change on the job? Expectations for Odom, what he's going through? I mean, he seems to be making the rounds right now with all the staples, the cheeseburger at Riverside and the shopping at Mincer's and, you know doing the the dog and pony show if you may. Right. Well you know he's Charlottesville boy and I'm sure those are places that are dear to his heart and it's probably good to be seen in public. I think on one hand I don't think Tony Bennett did that enough.

All the years in Charlottesville, I only ran into Tony a few times in public. And I think it's good for a coach to be visible out in the public, especially if you're a new coach. And Ryan is certainly doing that, but I think he's just integrating himself back with the community again. Something like Brian O'Connor is famous for doing. And I think that's a good thing for people to see him out and about and approachable. And he's got his work cut out for him and it's coming in to coming at him in waves

You know, you got to fill out your coaching staff, which he seems to be have a pretty good plan for bringing in three assistants and a director of operations from VCU all All of those people go pretty far back with him Ryan Oalist. One guy all the way to Lenore Ryan. Yep. And so, you've got that. And again, I don't know how you deal with all the names in the portal and trying to find what you want.

Maybe there's a simplified way for coaches that we aren't aware of that helps them sort out what they're looking for. But those are the two big issues right now is roster building and fulfilling his coaching staff. Let's talk the news that's on jerryradcliff.com with Ryan Odom rebuilding the Cavaliers coaching roster. You cite sources in a story published yesterday,

my friend is a night owl over there at 11.50 p.m. right before the newspaper filing deadline of midnight. Frank, who is running the Daily Progress print press, may have been a little sour with you with filing that story at 11.50 prior to the midnight deadline. But you do what you got to do here, especially the digital era, right? Remember that midnight deadline we used to have? In fact, I think our deadline may have been 11.30.

It kept getting earlier and earlier. It used to be 2 a.m. upon a time when I first got here. My last few days weeks at the Daily Progress under your tutelage I think the deadline was a it's like 930 or 945 I'm like dude I'm at Louisa County covering a football game how am I supposed to make it football game starts at 730 I can't file this by the game's not over yeah What are we doing here? Um, but he, he reports on Jerry Ratcliffe.com that VCU has that Ryan Odom has a number of coaches following him from VCU, Bryce Crawford,

Darius Theis, and Matt Henry, along with administrative assistant Kelsey Noke. Um, that's four coach, basically four coaches, four assistants right there. Yeah. Bryce Crawford has been with him the longest. They were together at first cross paths at Lenore Ryan, and then he worked for Ryan for five seasons at UMBC, and then went with him to Utah State and then back to VCU. So he's been around for quite a while. In fact, he was the guy who recruited the heck out of Chance Mallory

at the beginning of that process. The St. Ann's people indicated that Bryce Crawford was up here, practically lived up here early on trying to convince Chance to come to VCU. So we know that guy was a very active recruiter. Darius Theis played at VCU, was on three NCAA tournament teams, including the Final Four team in 2011. He's from Norfolk originally. He's worked at VCU, Sienna, and Texas. So he's very familiar with what's

going on and then I think he was part of the VCU guys that he kept on the staff or added to the staff when he got the VCU from Utah State. Then Matt Henry, a native of Alexandria, was with him at UMBC for three seasons, two years at Utah State and two years at VCU. So these guys have worked together for quite a while and know how to read each other and what each other's thinking, along with obviously his assistant head coach.

He's known him for quite a while. So Odom brings four from VCU, along with the former head coach of Longwood to Charlottesville. So he's got four men and one woman on the roster, the coaching roster here. So that's five coaches. Excuse me, Kelsey Noke was with him at Utah State and VCU as director of operations and she's a rare find in college division one basketball. I think like 15 women overall that

hold that position in division one. So he must have a lot of high regards for her abilities to run the day to day operations of the program. Absolutely, absolutely. And the logical segue question would be, what does this mean for Assistant Coach Coleman, Assistant Coach Wilkins, Assistant Coach Guy, and some of the UVA coaching staff? We're talking Virginia basketball guys

who transitioned to coaching under Tony Bennett and then Ron Sanchez. I know Marty Hutloff reported of NBC29 following Ryan Odom's hiring that Wilkins and Guy would transition to Odom's roster. Does that mean seven assistant coaches? And what happens to Jason Willifer? What happens to Chase Coleman?

Yeah, well some of those guys could just be out of luck. And excuse me, that's not uncommon when a coach comes to a new program and brings a lot of his assistants. Sometimes they'll consider keeping one or two guys, just to have that, you know, that influence from that school. They help them kind of navigate the waters of what that program is like, and what you can do, what you can't do, that sort of thing. I fully expected that the majority

of Virginia's previous coaching staff were probably not gonna be retained, but that he might keep one or two people on to, for that very purpose and it appears to be the case. And you do have, there's a lot, I can't remember the limit. I mean, right now he's got more coaches than players. Way more. He has way more coaches than players right now, Ryan Odom.

Yeah, well, if you look over at Virginia's bench during any particular game, you'll usually see more coaches or almost as many coaches as you do players anyway, when you add, start adding the strength coach and some of these other guys but some of them are not labeled as assistant coaches per se. Their development, player personnel development, various aspects like that. But when it all boils down to it, they're actually assistant coaches because they're either out there at practice and coaching or whatever,

just like Kyle Guy was, even though that wasn't his title. He was practicing with the team every day and was on the bench for every game. So there's a multitude of coaches you can have in your program now. This team trying to fill its roster as we speak, what do you make of the McNeely News being linked to Louisville and Tennessee? We thought North Carolina UNC was the front runner according to the rumor mill. Now Tennessee and Louisville seem to be the front runners. Yeah and I don't know what is behind that but Tennessee I like Rick Barnes I always have I think he's a great guy and a great coach and he's a great coach runs a really good program and I got to know him a little bit when he almost became Virginia's head coach and then later became the Clemson head

coach. And he even let me and our big writer played his golf club once on a late March or early March game travel when we were down there to cover a Virginia Clemson game and he told us we could play his golf club down there at Clemson and he's just a really good guy. I could see why somebody would want to play for him. He relates well to players and runs a strong program. Tennessee has a lot of NIO money as most SEC schools do. Louisville, I think they lose a lot of players just because their eligibility ran out. Maybe the benchmark of how you could build through the portal quickly, Louisville.

Yeah, they certainly are. They throw a a lot of the money around as well. I mean, that's almost like a pro franchise in Louisville for those who have never been out there for a game. It's a great town. The arena is right downtown. There's tons of bars and restaurants and hotels around the arena. It's a first-class arena. It seats 20, 21,000 people. It's state-of-the-art. It's like a bigger JPJ, really. They have a lot of major concerts there. It's a very vibrant community, and it's like It's a very vibrant community and it's like their franchise and it's a pretty good sized city. And they love their football and they love their basketball out there. And when they've got it going, the fans turn out big time.

And it's a huge TV market as well. If McNeely transfers to a North Carolina or Louisville, it's the double sting because he stays in the ACC and Virginia has to face the sharp shooter this coming season. The McNeely to the ACC and how that dynamic plays out. Your thoughts on that topic? Well, that's just the world we live in. It used to be a rule that you couldn't even transfer to another conference school, but that quickly went out the window when attorneys got a hold of it.

And just like everything else has, it's been changed by attorneys. But that would be a bitter pill for Virginia fans to swallow to see Isaac Nealy show up at JPCJ. Especially the UNC. In another uniform. It would be a hard pill to swallow. But just get used to it because there's a lot of crazy stuff that we're going to see now that we've never seen before. The likelihood of a UVA player that's entered the transfer portal returning, who are the guys that you see potentially coming back to Charlottesville, if any?

I don't know if any of those guys put no contact on their portal tag, which means they've already decided where they're going But McNeely I think maybe I think there might have been one other that said they might be open to coming back But I don't know how hard Virginia is pursuing those players we haven't had any contact with pursuing those players. We haven't had any contact with Odom since the press conference a little over a week ago now. So we don't know how hard they're going after him or or even if they are going after him. A lot of coaches once you go

into the portal they don't want anything to do with you anymore. So it's going to be interesting to see if any of those guys come back. Chad Wood watching the program, one of the talented tail backs and Steve Isaac's single wing offense when they were contending for Jefferson District Championships. Goodness gracious, some 20 years ago. You dating yourself. I am dating myself. I covered that to you when he was in high ago. You dating yourself. I am dating myself. I covered that to you when he was in high school. You sent me to Crozet on that beat when they were doing big time things.

See, Isaac McNeely is a guy that has obvious portal upside. Some of these other guys that have entered the portal from the UVA roster, not nearly the upside. I see potential for Kofi. Yeah. Anthony Robinson's got the NBA body, but he had limited experience in production this past year. Rody, with a year left of eligibility,

you wonder what the true upside is, although he'll land somewhere. I was shocked that Blake Buchanan went to Iowa State. That was a little surprising to me as well because Iowa State's been in the NCAA tournament for three or four years in a row now. TJ was one of the guys that Otzelberger was one of the guys that Virginia at least had some contact with about becoming the Cavaliers coach and I think the guy's a heck of a basketball coach. He's done wonders out there,

but obviously they feel that he can fit into their program. I don't think, I think he played out of position here too much. They expected him to be a, and maybe it was out of necessity to be a big man in the middle. And he's not the physical specimen, physical type center that you would normally find in the ACC. He's more of a stretch four and never really got

to flourish at that position. So maybe that's what they have in mind for him at Iowa State. Yeah, well said. Well said. I could see with Odom's offense and how he runs a free flowing up tempo offense. I, you know, got my fingers crossed that a Jacob Kofi returns. I like Kofi. Yeah, I like Kofi a lot. I think Kofi has upside. I could even see a guy like Andrew Rode potentially having some success in Ryan Odom's up-tempo offense as a ball handler, as a guy that's

a relatively good defender. But this is clearly looking like Chance Mallory's team. And if you're building a roster and you're doing it around a local guy, there's branding and marketing potential there. Talk to us about how the upside of a Chance Mallory could be utilized potentially to attract talent to Charlottesville? Yeah, well, he mentioned to us that he was going to try to get on the phone and call some people after he had committed to try to convince them to come to Charlottesville as well.

Don't know who he might have in mind, but certainly he's well connected out on the AAU circuits with all the people he's played against and I'm sure that they wouldn't mind using him to make a few phone calls In terms of the portal or at least maybe visit visiting briefly with some of these guys that are coming here for visits from the portal. So it would be wise to use him to say, hey, let's try to build something together, something

special here. And he's a really smart, well-spoken kid. So I would think he could have some influence on a couple of possible recruits. Roger Voizena, welcome to the show. Olivia Branch, welcome to the show. Vanessa Parkhill, thank you for watching the program. Viewers and listeners, if you have questions, put them in the feed. I will relay them live on air. This question's come in and they highlight Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press. It's from Kenneth Knuckles. And Graham is trying to Freedom of Information Act requests the University of Virginia and Ryan Odom's contract.

And he is getting delayed and excuses made. And he asked, and he reports about this today that he submitted a public records request back on March 22nd for the copy of Ryan Odom's contract, then a follow up on the 23rd. And then this morning, the 31st, he hears from UVA that the earliest that they're going to give him the contract is the 9th of April.

Well, it didn't used to be that way. I know back when I was in the newspaper business for years when we first started asking for that sort of information, they made us use a FOIA and then they lightened up for about a decade and if we would just call and ask for it, they would just send it to us. And it would usually come in a big package and it would be a copy of the contract of anybody we wanted. And there was no,

no hiding of any information. But now they've gone back the other way and it's yet to for you anything that you want. Which is odd. It's like why poke the bear or why try to upset a hornet's nest. I don't want to call Chris Graham a hornet here, but this guy is a journalist. He's persistent. And if he's told no by UVA, that's

only going to make him even more persistent to get what he wants. Absolutely. Chris is a bulldog. He's a bulldog. I got to that question. He has his own style of reporting the news, which I think is fair to say. We all have our own styles.

And he has a large following of readers and it's a public university. Yeah. And you got to give this information anyway. Can you walk me through the thinking of why not providing the information on the, out of the job? I wish I could, but I don't understand it myself. I why not just say, okay, here it is. but I don't understand it myself. Why not just say, okay, here it is, and why make you go all the way through the process of having to file a Freedom of Information Act to get it?

It's not a state secret or anything. It's just a freaking basketball contract. I've heard it six years. I have no idea. I don't know if that's accurate, and I don't know what the total salary is going to be. I don't know why they would try to protect that or fight against releasing it unless they think they're going to tee off some of their professors that don't feel like that that kind of money should be spent on athletics.

And there are some of those over there. Quite a few actually. But I've never understood that process. The later we go in time, the more I don't understand it. There's no excuse for it. It was just so simple back in the day when we called over and said, can I get a copy of Pete Gillen's contract? And they would send it over within that afternoon.

And no charge, not that it's only like 25 bucks anyway, but it's just making 25 bucks anyway, but it's just making people jump through hoops for no reason. I don't understand the process. What do you make of the NIL? What are you hiding? Okay, that was my next question. With the NIL and what some of these players are earning, and with Ryan Odom's contract not being easily accessible here,

my question is, will we know what, should we know what players make with NIL? If it's a public university, I think you should. Now that you mention it, I hadn't thought about it, but... Should we know how much Chance Mallory is earning? you mention it, I hadn't thought about it. Should we know how much Chance Mallory is earning? Yeah. I've heard Chance Mallory is at $1.2 million a year.

I'd say that's probably accurate. I don't see what there is to hide. Just make things have some clarity to it, and visibility to it. Why hide all these things? I mean, I don't understand it unless, I mean, the teammates know that they're getting X amount of money and, you know, some teammates are getting little or nothing, I would think. I've never understood why people want to cloud the issue.

Jeremy Wilson watching in Tennessee, he says he thinks it's been this way since Carla Williams took over as athletic director. I think it was even before that. But there was a decade there where, at least a decade, where it was so simple. And we knew the lady who was in charge of that process. And she knew what we were trying to do. And it was nothing controversial. We just felt like we, the fans needed to know the details of contracts and things like that.

And she would send it over without any issues or any controversy attached to it. Just simply send it. It shouldn't be any different now. We'll get to spring football guys. Questions are coming in on spring football here on the show. A lot of comments that I'm seeing right here from the viewers and listeners. Here's a very intriguing one right here. Why welcome any of the guys that have entered the portal back to UVA when they've showed you their commitment to UVA by entering the portal?

My response to that would be, and the questions for you, Hoodie, is that's today's college basketball. Yeah, it is. And when Ryan, at his press conference Monday a week ago, he said there would be no judgments about the players who entered the portal. That he knows that they're trying to do what's best for them. And he would not judge them. So I would assume that if some of them wanted to come back, he would at least have that conversation with them

to see if they fit his system and how dedicated they were to the program. So I don't know if he would be opposed to anybody trying to return or not. It probably depends on their game and if it fits his system and if he feels convinced that they really wanna be here. Viewers and listeners, it's a brave new world

of college basketball and it's not just impacting UVA. How about your March Madness, Braggnick? Have you noticed that the Cinderella team is a team is a idea or a fantasy or a Endeavor of yesteryear. I mean the the sweet 16 the elite 8 the final four all blue bloods and I want you to think about this the the era of a George Mason or a VCU, having a roster of senior talent that gelled together over the course of freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior years

to then play a tournament where you only have to win one game and move on. If you're a talented player on one of these mid-major teams, why would you stay for four years of development in that program when you can now chase a bag of money and and go after a major conference program to pay you? Hootie, is the era of the mid-major and the Cinderella team, is that concept no longer? Seems dead to me. I don't think it's gonna happen anymore.

It would take a remarkable run for somebody to do that. And just for the reasons you cited, because if you're a promising freshman or sophomore and a larger program dangles a million dollars in front of you, are you gonna say no? Hard to say. Are you gonna come back? I think there's one kid I heard Dan Dacich

talk about yesterday, said maybe at Illinois State, I can't remember, but that he turned down loads of NIL money to stay with his program, but that's that's gonna be Really rare in today's world of college basketball in the NIL and All those good players are gonna get scooped up by bigger better programs and that leaves the men majors with a little, I think, of pulling off upsets. I mean, there were hardly any upsets in the NCAA tournament, if I recall, and I haven't followed it as closely as I normally do.

I've followed it pretty close. There weren't that many. Yeah. Yeah. There weren't that many, and some of the upsets were at the hands of the Atlantic Coast Conference like McNeese and Clemson. Right. I'm not even sure that was because McNeese has had a big NIL package. Absolutely. He's absolutely right. Will Wade. He's absolutely right. This questions come in if there's any guy

that's entered the portal who would O a most aggressively recruit to come back? That's from Georgia with that question. That's a good question. God be Kofi, right? I would think so. Yeah, I think a lot of West Coast schools are probably gonna come hard after Kofi since he's a Seattle kid and a lot of West Coast schools were recruiting him. And I was surprised Virginia was able to take him away from those West Coast schools in the recruiting process to begin with because he's a valued player. He's 6'9", he can shoot to three, he can score inside.

At times this year he did not play like a freshman, he played like a, almost like a junior and there were, you know, he had a wall for a while, but he bounced back and finished fairly strong. I think he's got tons of potential. So I would think if there was one guy he had to single out, he would be the one. Ah, man. You're not going to believe this. This news literally breaks during the show. And this is the University of Virginia rattling the hornet's nest Chris Graham again. They passed the, they respond to Chris Graham

that we're not going to give you the contract until the 9th of April. And yet they provide provided to the Daily Progress today. Seriously? This breaks four minutes ago. Odom's six-year contract like you said through the 2030-2031 season, the offer sheet that Odom signed last week. The Daily Progress obtained the copy through the Freedom of Information Act request on Tuesday. Odum will make 3.25 million this coming season, and his total compensation will increase 100,000 annually, so that's kind of tame

in reason of head coaches. It is, it's a lot more than he was making at VCU. That's true. But. The payment of the contract is broken into three parts, 500,000 base salary, 1.75, 1,750,000 in supplemental compensation, and 1 million in licensing pay.

The yearly 100,000 increase will count towards supplemental compensation. The yearly 100,000 increase will count towards supplemental compensation. He's also being given 25,000 in moving expenses. Odom can earn plenty of bonuses, including a 50K bonus for ACC Championship, 50,000 for NCAA Tournament appearance, 75,000 for reaching the Sweet 16, 100K for the Elite 8, a quarter million for the Final Four, and another 250,000 for a national title. If he's the ACC Coach of the Year 50K bonus,

75,000 if he's the National Coach of the Year. Considerable pay bump from VCU. If Odom leaves the Cavaliers before his contract expires, he'll owe 15 million in the first two years, 10 million in years three and four, and 7.5 million in year five and 5 million in year six, Hootie. Yeah, the bonuses sound pretty standard. I think that's essentially what Tony Bennett had. I think Tony was making four and a half million or something

like that, but again, he'd been here for quite a while. So, kind of surprised that he, I thought he might be getting paid a little bit higher than that, but still that's a pretty good salary. But, and again, as you mentioned, a boost from what he was making at VCU. So six years is pretty standard as well these days, I think.

Yeah. I am shocked though that they released it a week ahead to one media outlet and not another. Well do they look at what he's doing at the Guster Free Press as not media? Well they should because he's certainly media. Yeah, and he's got a massive following. Yeah, he has a... I would... his following is larger than the daily progress is following. I'll sure guarantee you that.

No question about it. He, he's the news source in the valley. Yeah. He has a higher circulation than all the newspapers in the valley. Well, then what would be the thinking there? I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know.

Maybe he's just a pain in their thorn in their saddle and they don't know. Maybe he's just a thorn in their saddle and they don't like it. Let's see how he responds to that. I think it could be a little bit of that. So Chris Graham under- I'm sure it's gonna rile Chris big time. No question about it. It's gonna rile Chris Graham big time.

Chris, I read your stuff, man. Appreciate your tenacious style. Chris is a good stuff, man. Appreciate your tenacious style. Chris is a good guy, man. He's a good guy. He goes after it. He goes after it. Six-year deal for Ryan Odom. $3.25 million coming this year for the head coach.

Is this a rebuild or a reload year? Oh, it's a. Is it a rebuild? It's a complete rebuild. OK. Walk us through that, because it's a, is it a rebuild? Oh, it's a complete rebuild. Okay. Walk us through that because it's a brand, no one on the roster on VirginiaSports.com? Nobody on the roster. Will, will he be given the patience of a rebuild?

I don't know. That's a good question because as you cited earlier, look what Louisville did in one year. And Louisville is just one example. Kansas State did it the year before, went to the Final Four with 13 new players on its roster. Fans are less forgiving now, but they may be a little bit more here just because of what happened this past year with the interim coach and the program dropping off the cliff a little bit and the entire roster apparently in the portal. So they may have to display more patience than they would normally do in order to allow this guy to restore what was here before.

He's got his work cut out for him, ladies and gentlemen. This question comes in from West Virginia. And Chad, I'm going to get to your comments here in a matter of moments in Crozet. This one from West Virginia. Who do you think that Anthony Robertson legitimately can perform at a school like Stanford, which he's linked to right now? I think Anthony Robertson's got a bright future. I would think so. I mean, he definitely needs a lot more footwork. He's got the body, there's no question about that, and he's not afraid to use it. He has a, you get him around a basket and he's gonna slam it.

I don't know if he's a very good shooter, but he don't have to be if you're dunking it every time you get the ball. But he's a big physical kid with I think a pretty good ceiling. Again, he needs a lot of footwork and some other improvements to his game. But I think he could play at Stanford. I don't think Stanford is anything that's the bottom of the conference. Not much different than what he was doing here. Yeah. Academically, I don't know how you, if you go to UVA and can handle that, I'm sure you

can handle Stanford as well. I agree, 100 percent I agree with Hootie Rockliffe on that one. This is an interesting comment that's come in. Will we know, does Hootie think that we'll know the coaching contracts of the assistants, including the associate head coach as well? Not until we've found Hoyas. I don't think, they're not going to give that information up unless it's requested. Chad Wood says it's a fair contract,

but he expected more annually for Ryan Odom. Yeah, I thought the salary might be a little higher, but UVA is not going to pay any more than they have to. They're not going out there to make a splash in and in coaching hiring news in terms of Compensation they never have three million two hundred fifty thousand on the first year for for Ryan Odom with a bunch of bonus potential for the newly minted Head coach what is who do you think the style of play Ryan Odom is going to utilize is going to look like? I think it's going to be a lot like VCU.

I would say I'm a carbon copy and they're going to play faster. If you look at the breakdown they really didn't have that many more possessions this year than Virginia did, but it looked like it appeared that they were playing faster just because of the style of basketball that they employed. But we're going to see a faster-paced offense. We're going to see a lot of three-point shooting, and we're going to see a pressing defense that presses at least three-quarters court if not full court almost the entire game and you're going to have to be in incredible physical shape to be able to to do that and that's why I question whether some of these guys on the previous roster can play at that pace. I mean, it's some heavy moving going on there.

I mean, Day-D could have. Day-D without question could have. No question. Maybe Rodie. I'm not sure. Not sure McNeely would have. It would be hard even though he does move a lot. Not sure McNeely would have. That would be hard, even though he does move a lot, but he...

Because he expends so much on offense, asking him to expend that much on defense would have taken away potentially from his offense. Yeah, that's true. You took the words right out of my mouth. He... If he can be a, you know, a sharpshooter for Tennessee and Rick Barnes, I mean, he could parlay himself into some kind of level of professional basketball like we see with the kid with the LA Lakers. That came from Tennessee. Now that guy is a better athlete and he's taller than than than Isaac McNeely, but McNeely just as good a shooter. Without question. Football in the final seven minutes of the program over

here. I haven't seen much football from anyone. I follow everyone. It's been a quiet spring season. It has been a very quiet spring. And a make or break year for Tony Elliott. Yeah and I think a lot of that again is due to the focus on UVA basketball with the coaching change and now the roster replacement. That's left the fan base with a dropped jaw, I think, just waiting to see what was going to happen and so many rumors flying out there. But I think as we, as the spring game approaches,

I think there'll be more, a little bit more news out there about UVA football. What questions do you have with the football team? Does it start under center? I think they're gonna be fine at quarterback. I mean that kid's thrown for about I don't even know how many total yards he's thrown for. He threw for over 3,000 yards last year. And I don't think they've got any issues at quarterback. I think the issues are gonna be at the offensive line again and on defense, whether they can stop people.

And a little bit in the secondary, I know they had some, they were still hoping to maybe fill some holes there. But I think one of the big questions is, can you put all these guys together and build some chemistry between March and September? You know, you've got a ton of at least 20, I think at least 20 new transfers coming in

and 17 or so high school recruits that'll be here in August. Some of them are here already, I think. So it's gonna take a lot to get all those guys on the same page and working in cohesion. That's a big part of football is having you got so many moving parts and it's got to work together. I think that's going to be a big challenge in itself. Chad Wood who follows this program closely, Chad I've heard that as well. I don't have any confirmation. I'll ask Hootie about that.

That Monroe Mills who prior to Virginia was at Oklahoma State, Texas Tech in Louisville, talented offensive lineman, had a serious knee injury and spring practice. But that's all scuttlebutt here. Yeah. practice but that's all scuttlebutt here. Yeah I missed a couple of Zooms that they've had with assistant coaches just because I was working on basketball. This is the top offensive tackle on the portal. Yeah so that may be true it sounds like it's probably true if it's out there like that. I would not be surprised if that's the case and if that's the case. And if that's the case, that's definitely a blow to the offensive line. Um, we'll follow, we'll follow spring football closely.

What are your, what are the storylines you're following with the spring game? Um, I'll again, I think a lot of it's just the cohesion and, and, uh, one of these guys, how well they come together. And the, again, the offensive line, because they still, even though they won five games last year and probably should have won six last year and maybe six the year before, I still think a lot of that falls back

to the offensive line wasn't protecting the quarterback and wasn't dominating in most games the line of scrimmage to where you could have a reliable running game. I know they tore it up against people like Coastal Carolina and maybe another game or two. But free concessions at Coastal Carolina. Did you see that? Yeah.

Yeah, I did see that. You go to a Coastal Carolina game now, you don't have to pay for any concessions at Coastal Carolina. Did you see that? Yeah. Yeah, I did see that Yeah, you go to a Coastal Carolina game now. You don't have to pay for any concessions Yeah, and they estimated that they were making a quarter of a million dollars per game on concessions alone so They are It's an interesting concept. I don't know if anybody else has tried that to see but I don't know if anybody else has tried that to see. But I don't understand the idea behind it all because they were selling out every game anyways. Unless they're raising ticket prices. Yeah, I think there might be something else coming.

Nothing's for free these days. Free concessions here, but you're going to have to pay a fee just to be able to buy tickets and then those tickets are going to be more expensive. Nothing's free. No free lunches these days. Exactly. It's my favorite saying, the more you buy, the more you save. How does that work out?

The more you buy, the more you save. That's called marketing right there. Good point. But Coastal's offering the free concessions. I mean certainly something Virginia football's got to do guys and and we were at the games. He's in the press box. We're at the games sitting in the stands in the seats. Can't have half empty stadiums. And the head football coach Tony Allium was coaching for his life here. His assistant coaches, they're coaching for their job here. Another sub 500 season, and I would imagine in less than a year, Carla Williams is gonna be hiring

it's her two marquee coaching spots and her department. Yeah, I mean, how much longer can a program afford to go without appearing in bowl games and playing before half empty stadiums? You're losing tons of money, and where your chief revenue is coming normally should come from. So it's a dilemma and they haven't come up with an answer. And some people think if he goes six and six and goes to a bowl and wins the bowl,

that's enough. Some people think that he's gotta win seven before, in regular season. Some people think he's gotta win eight in regular season. I don't know about that. That might be a stretch, but again, I don't think they've helped themselves with scheduling when they scheduled two non-conference games

against Washington State and NC State, even though that's an ACC school, it's a non-conference game, and it's on the road. And to me, if you have, you should take the approach that Duke and Wake Forest and NC State did for a while and play the worst teams that you can find out there and get scheduled two more wins. Yeah, maybe people say, well, who did you beat?

But in the long run, they don't care who you beat, it's what your bottom line is. And if you're in a bowl game, that looks good to recruits, as opposed to not being in a ball game for a long time. And what does that say to your recruits? So I think that's two games that they probably shouldn't have scheduled until they are winning consistently program. Jerry, you got who you Rockliffe has got a lot in the hopper. until they are winning consistently program. Jerry, you got, Hootie Rockliffe has got a lot in the hopper. You got transfer portal. You got a roster that's being built.

You got spring football. You got spring football injuries. You got a spring football game. You got Brian O'Connor trying to turn the program around. How about that sweep of Stanford? Great sweep of Stanford. Really huge. Critically important sweep and one of the best teams in college baseball at that. Yeah, top 20 program. So you're talking about upside there for baseball. You got lacrosse and tennis. I mean, this is as busy a time a year as possible for JerryRackliff.com. Yeah, there's so many sports going on. It's unbelievable. But again, most of the people

have their eyes on football and basketball, particularly basketball with the rebuild. You know, I think people jump to too many conclusions when, like with baseball, there's been times where they've struggled and then put it together at the end. Sometimes it takes time to figure out your team and find out all the working parts and how to motivate certain guys, et cetera. But I wouldn't panic on UVA baseball at this point. I wouldn't panic on UVA baseball at this point.

I think they're best baseballs ahead of them. I agree. And not with that head coach atop the program, baseball is gonna be all right. And I'll tell you what, if you want to watch some professional athletes play a sport, take a look at what's happening with men's tennis and women's tennis. I mean, those rosters and they may not get the attention of some of these other teams, but Hootie these rosters have legitimately professional players on them. And another

is it Ben James? Ben James and at least Ben James in golf. They have a couple of the guys that are pretty good to Virginia golf has PGA players on its collegiate roster right now. I mean it's it's This these golf and tennis sports have guys that are gonna be making millions of dollars and first compensation And if you look at baseball in the past week, there's several former UVA players that are breaking in with major league teams or AAA and making an impact. So there's going to be even more Virginia players in the major leagues this season.

And how about Bryce Perkins in the UFL? Oh yeah. I mean, Bryce is Bryce. He keeps on doing what he does. I'm surprised somebody in the NFL hasn't picked him up. I think somebody will at some point. I think so too. I think so too.

JerryRackliff.com, the source for everything UVA related. JerryRackliff.com. We will follow the transfer portal as we go to VirginiaSports.com. And we don't see a single player on the men's basketball roster right now. So Ryan Odom is doing a lot of work right now. Judah Wickauer, Hootie Radcliffe, Jerry Miller, the show airs wherever you get your podcasting or social media content

Tuesdays at 10-15 a.m. for a compelling one-hour discussion on Virginia. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long everybody..