The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - How Do You Grade The UVA Chris Pollard Hire?; Did UVA AD Carla Williams Make The Right Hire?

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: How Do You Grade The UVA Chris Pollard Hire? Did UVA AD Carla Williams Make The Right Hire? Pollard Filling Baseball Player & Coaching Roster Is Euro Big Man De Ridder Coming To UVA? UVA Facing Texas In ACC/SEC Challenge How Is UVA Basketball Recruiting Going Now? UVA Football: What To Watch? What Concerns You? How Does UVA Drive Football Fan Engagement? 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.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry show. It's an absolute pleasure to connect with you guys on the I Love Seaville Network on a program that spotlights the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hoodie-Rackliff, a household commodity amongst the University of Virginia fan base. Today's program we talk baseball. We have clarity with who the replacement, the heir apparent, who the next skipper is for Virginia baseball.

And he comes from Durham, guys, a man with ties to the Commonwealth of Virginia and extremely important hire for athletics director, Carla Williams. We'll talk Coach Pollard on the program as he fills out his coaching staff, as he fills out his player roster. We'll talk basketball. We got a European big man that everybody wants, a man that has got so much talent.

He's got NBA scouts drooling, a man with so much talent. He has Ryan Odom and his coaching staff drooling. Where is Mr. DeRidder, and will he come to Charlottesville to play basketball for the University of Virginia? And of course, we're gonna talk football. We are mere months away from opening kickoff. A football team that is in the crossfire. A fan base that may be reeling with apathy.

What does the athletic department need to do to drive football fan engagement? All those questions and more on the Jerry and Jerry show where we encourage you, the viewer and listener, to help shape the discussion. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. My friend, if you can go to the studio camera and then a two-shot as we welcome the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Hootie Radcliffe, good Tuesday morning to you. Good Tuesday morning to you as well.

It's been an interesting week for sure. I think this time last week we were talking about the baseball coach and. You called it. I think it was, yeah, well, I think it was a no brainer. But he, I think they must have been, I'm not even sure the ink was dry on the contract while we were talking about it. And it was announced shortly after the show was over that they had gotten Chris Pollard to succeed Brian O'Connor.

Why don't we start with scatter shooting with Jerry Hootie-Rackliffe. You got baseball, you got basketball, you got football. These summer months where things slow down but goodness gracious not for the University of Virginia. No, things haven't slowed down so far in terms of baseball. Well, even in recruiting, there's still a lot of activity going on with football and basketball for sure. I think Tony Elliott got his eighth commitment

for the 2026 class yesterday and basketball. We'll talk about DeRitter in a little while, but baseball is, I think that it was a terrific hire and I don't know why you would even look anywhere else. I remember meeting Chris Pollard several years ago when Appalachian State came to Charlottesville for a regional and looked like he had a really good team at Appie State and I was was able to talk to him one-on-one a little bit at that regional and and I didn't know much about his background at that point, but he had volunteered that he had grown up a Virginia fan and I asked him, you know, how so? And he said, well, I was born and raised

in Amherst County and had always been a Virginia fan and particularly a Virginia baseball fan and had tried to pattern his Appalachian State baseball program after the way Brian O'Connor built the program here. So as far back as that, I thought, wow, if Brian O'Connor would ever retire or leave for whatever reason, this guy seemed to be

a natural fit to take his place. If they went after anybody else't I wouldn't know why. How close was the Wake Forest head coach to getting the job? From what I heard not that close really. It was mostly Pollard all the way and that they were determined to get him I guess that was the big question is whether they could convince him to come to Charlottesville. He'd built an outstanding program at Duke from practically scratch. Baseball at Duke wasn't very good when he got there. He built him into a perennial NCAA contender. I think salary- salary wise he's probably greatly enhanced his career and the fact that he's gonna be able to bring his entire coaching

staff with him and and several players have followed him commitments and through the transfer portal. So they that's an A plus higher in my mind. Carla Williams, an important hire for her. We'll get to that in a matter of moments. Bill McChesney on McIntyre Road. Welcome to the program. Margie King Collins is watching the show. She goes, it's very important, she says, that he takes care of those UBA players that stayed here in Charlottesville. Yes, and from what I understand, he and his staff were trying to retain players, and you

know, some of them have entered the portal, a lot of them have entered the portal. I think they're trying to convince some of them to stay at UVA, and they should, because certainly they wouldn't be here if they weren't quality players and could help him fashion his program the way he would like it. So yeah, I think it's I think he and his staff will treat those guys well and we'll try to get as many of them to come back as as they possibly can. Cliff Daisy watching the program on the eastern shore, he said he has a football question on a commitment once we get to football.

He gave you props yesterday, or excuse me, he gave you props last week with the Pollard News breaking after the Jerry and Jerry show, and said Hootie Radcliffe's crystal ball proves to be correct yet again. The Pollard hire, if I'm reading you correctly, how would you grade it? It sounds like he gets, Carla Williams in the athletic department get an A for this

hire. A plus, I think, because not only did they recognize that he would be a great hire, but did what it took to get him here. And I don't know how the negotiations went or any of that. Well, we're talking to Chris Pollard tomorrow afternoon, so we'll learn more about all that. But A plus higher, again, no brainer. If they went after anybody else, I think they were just wasting their time.

Kevin Yancey in Waynesboro says, "'Good morning, Triple J.'" Judah included in that Triple J. That's right, big Judah. Kevin Yance says, good morning, Triple J. Judah included in that Triple J. That's right, big Judah. Kevin Yancey, good morning. Let us know if you have some questions. The transfer portal with baseball, working the transfer portal, resources available.

I mean, this guy's gotta build a roster here almost from scratch and very quickly. Yeah, that's gonna be one of his major challenges is because there's so many Virginia guys that went into the portal. We heard 27 I'm not sure if that number is correct but that means you probably probably only have what 13 or more, a few more that's decided to stick around. And so far I think he's had maybe six of his former players to transfer to Virginia, some of the really good players and one kid who grew up in Crozet. And then I think there was three, maybe three Duke commitments,

all really good prospects who have, are gonna be joining his program. So that's, you still got a lot of roster spots to fill and a lot of it's gonna be determined by how many of those Virginia players he can convince to stick around. What did you learn from the Brian O'Connor Mississippi State press conference, the reporting following the Brian O'Connor hire, anything stand out to you? Well he was very gracious and professional which we expected him to be.

He could have taken some shots if he had wanted to, but he took the high road. I think he was excited to be in Starkville and they were excited to have him. There'll be a lot of pressure on him to produce instantaneously, essentially, because of the money. Well, the money and all the hoopla.

And they take baseball very seriously down there. That probably surpasses basketball as their number two sport. And football hasn't given them much to cheer about. As O'Connor is accustomed to that, I guess. about as O'Connor is accustomed to that, I guess. But, um, that was a dig. That was a long time. You just made me laugh.

Six years since they've really done anything here, but, uh, you know, I, it was great to see him get welcomed like that. I agree. You know, it was great to see him get welcomed like that. I agree. Not many baseball coaches get that kind of introduction. And I mean, when we're talking Chris Pollard tomorrow, it's media only, there's no public's not invited. So a lot of less hoopla around the

welcoming Pollard to Charlottesville. But yeah, again, the expectations out there are going to be strong. And again, he took the high road. He took the high road. People close to him and close to the program told me that there was a lot of reasons he was unhappy here and close to the program, told me that there was a lot of reasons he was unhappy here and trying to fight for various things that he couldn't get, or didn't get.

And he could have used, he could have thrown some people under the bus for you to want it to, but he was actually 100% opposite of that in praising Virginia for what they had done and thanking the fans and the athletic department for helping him build the program. Renee Pettifer watching the program, one of the biggest UVA fans in Wahoo Nation, says she loves the show, she misses watching us, she loves our shirts, she has some basketball questions for us, we can kind of hop around as

questions are coming in quickly for baseball, football, and basketball. She asked this question, have you heard anything about the men's basketball teams practices or practice? And she says when's Ryan Odom going to make a general manager hire? Well, most of the players arrived over the weekend, I think. And they will enroll in summer school and to get some hours in the summer to take so they're going to have to be taking so many hours during the season but I imagine practices at least on the pickup game level will probably start if they haven't already started but I imagine this week and

they'll get start to build some chemistry I I don't know how much organized practice they can have at this point. I know the coaches are allowed some time with the players. I don't know if it's for one-on-one individual instruction or if they can have a certain amount of hours of contact with the players in terms of a practice. But what was the rest of the question? General manager, I think the question we all wanna know. Well, a few weeks ago we reported it. Ryan said that he wanted to get his staff complete

and get recruiting essentially over with. They're in evaluation periods right now. I'm not sure when it ends, but they've been all over the place. I think they will have a story up later today. I think they've offered like 14 or 15 players for the next recruiting class, and I imagine you'll want to get that out of the way. His staff is complete and there's still some room on the roster to maybe grab a player or two from the transfer portal over the summer. So I imagine he'll want to get all that stuff pretty much settled. They're probably, they probably have a short list of GMs if they're not already

talking to them. And, um, so I expect that hire will probably come later this month or sometime next month would be my guess. Uh, questions continue to come in. Kevin Yancey in Waynesboro says with the three major sports struggling, are they going to reduce tickets drastically for all of us to drive fan engagement? I don't see that happening. I don't think that's going to happen. Probably should, particularly in football. If I had to, I'd give them away in

football to put fannies in the seats and try to build some kind of a home field advantage. I just don't understand why with so many empty seats you wouldn't just go to like the Boys and Girls Club or like some kind of kids organization and just say we'll give them to you. We'll sell them to you for a dollar. Anything to get people in the seats. Yeah I would do whatever it takes to get people in the seats in football and they may argue well it's not fair to the people that are buying the season tickets but you got to do something to generate some excitement and with that program right now it's surrounded by apathy

and I can't imagine there's going to be a huge crowd there for the opening game against Coastal Carolina unless they do something different that they haven't done in the past. But I don't see them reducing ticket prices in general for basketball or baseball and football they might have they might come up with some kind of deals but if they have they haven't announced anything like that. We are about two months and change away folks from Coastal Carolina in Scott Stadium the 30th of August a 6 p.m. kickoff. Comments continue to roll in here. The basketball news with the ridder is all over the feed.

Yeah. Well, there's a guy out there, his name is Nick. I saw that. Kolonowski, who's an NBA draft and NCAA hoops analyst and he posted yesterday that he has learned from an inside source that DeRidder has withdrawn from the NBA draft process as part of his ongoing approval dialogue with the NCAA and it looks increasingly likely that he will end up heading to Virginia. So if that is the case, that's huge news for Virginia because he's having a guy like that to join the the big German that they have and the other players on the roster, particularly in the front court, that gives Virginia an experienced, talented front court.

And it's kind of, you got two potential second round NBA draft choices in your front court. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that can take you. Quickly quickly into the winter circle and possibly deep in the NCAA tournament. If everything comes together as planned. If you were a betting man, would you say to Ritter plays basketball in Charlottesville? Wow. From the sound of this report, I would, yeah. But...

The visas are being impacted with, you know, not just sports everywhere. Right. I mean, yeah, if this report is accurate, and this guy, And this guy, Kalinowski, seems to have a really good source who has corrected some other reports out there that were false. So he must know somebody really close to De Ritter. But it sounds like it's strongly in favor of Virginia getting him. And that's, again, that would be huge for this program. Michael Murphy watching the program and the comments continue to fly in here.

He says, first, keep up the great work, fellas. He loves the show. He also says he's been listening to some of the Mississippi State news and content since the Brian O'Connor hiring. And some of the folks down in Mississippi State are absolutely questioning why Brian O'Connor would leave that job for Mississippi State with the pressure that's down there in Starkville.

We also had similar questions here. Most coaches thrive on pressure. They like challenges. Most coaches are nomadic too, guys. Yeah. I mean, it's rare for a coach to stay at one place for his entire career. Usually it's not by the coach's choice. Right.

It's not normal for you to be able to call your own shots, particularly if you've been in the business as a head coach for 22 years or so. Again, I think there were some underlying factors here that you can never quite prove because nobody wants to come out and say it on the record, but we've heard whispers and things from various people surrounding the program that he was not happy with the way some things were going here and didn't think it was going to change or if it was it was going to change too late. I think Mississippi State recognized that and knew that all he needed was a nudge and some money and 2.9 million dollars is a pretty nice nudge in my book. So they have an incredible fan base. They

have set all the NCAA baseball attendance records. They have a passionate fan base. They have an incredible stadium that seats, I think, well over 10,000. They're in the best baseball conference, arguably in the country, where baseball means a lot. Down in the SEC country, it's for a long time, baseball was bigger than basketball. That's changed over the last few years, but I think coaches like challenges.

I think maybe he needed, once he started thinking about it, I think he kind of refreshed him and gave him an opportunity to go out and do something different. Yeah, I agree. I think he's feeling a sense of invigoration. And things that I don't want to use the word stagnated around here of late, but it didn't seem to have the same, I don't know, vibrancy or zest or energy.

And that could be attributed to a number of things. I think the fan base is in tune with the rumblings behind the scenes with the support of the baseball program as well. But I will say this, Pollard is a fantastic hire. This guy really cares about Virginia and has grown up a Virginia fan. And building a program at Duke shows me that this guy understands what it takes to win,

because that's not the most well-resourced program. This is an interesting question that's come in the feed, and this question is coming from Charlotte, North Carolina. What can we expect different from Chris Pollard than what Brian O'Connor was doing? That's a good question. I think we'll find out more about that tomorrow. I can't say, claim to be an expert on his brand of baseball.

I didn't see Virginia and Duke series this year. I don't remember a lot about what his teams were like at Appalachian State in terms of their style of play. Well, again, we'll find out more about that tomorrow. We'll get the chance to ask him all that. But I think it's gonna be solid. I know that they had a pretty strong pitching staff down there.

They had, he recruited some really good hitters. The one kid that Virginia got from them, let's see, Krasius, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing his name right. This is extremely talented. Was just so last night that he was rated the number one prospect in the entire portal in the country. So he's projected as a very early round draft choice in major league draft next year. So I think it'll be a pretty aggressive brand of baseball

and something that will get Virginia fans excited about. Put in perspective the importance of this hire for, I think this is fair, in battled athletics director, Carla Williams. Yeah. There was a lot of finger pointing going on that she may have been the source of him leaving, O'Connor leaving.

And again, I don't know if we'll ever get to the bottom of it, but I think all eyes were on her and what she was gonna do. I don't think she could have done any better than to bring in Chris Pollard and convince him to come to Charlottesville. He's a first rate coach and can recruit nationally.

a first rate coach and can recruit nationally. He's got a great brand already built here to work with, much nicer facilities than he had at Duke. And I think he has a really solid coaching staff coming with him. So again, I think to use the baseball terminology, it was a home run hire and she knocked it out of the park. I mean, you got to give her kudos. I got to give her kudos.

I was just going to say that she deserves some props for this hire. She's embattled fairly in the crossfire, but she deserves props for the Chris Pollard hire and performance from the baseball program out of the gate. I think the expectation is going to be high. I think it's going to be high for Ryan Odom. And I think frankly speaking, if the football team struggles, which we don't know what's going to happen, a lot of talent on that football roster, but if the football team does struggle this fall, the pressure is going to be even more sky high for Ryan Odom and for baseball.

We should talk football here because questions are coming in quickly. Two months away from kickoff, where do you want to begin scatter shooting with football, then we'll get to the comments coming in in the feed. Well, we're not that far away from training camp. I think it starts in late July or early August. So we won't have to wait long to see some of these guys in action. Saw them a little bit in the spring, but they didn't have a full roster in the spring. A lot of guys were still after spring I think they brought in another dozen or so players through the portal a lot of players missed the spring with

recovering from surgeries and etc I think there'll be immense pressure on this coaching staff to produce because there's no reason they shouldn't win there's no reason they shouldn't have a winning season the schedule is lighter read in places where it's the most manageable power for schedule in the country. And the fact that they brought in 31, I think, transfer portal guys, they have depth at every position on the field, which is an about face from just about every Virginia team going back to the Al Groh days, I think,

because I know Groh complained about it some at the end, Mike London complained about it during his entire tenure, Bronco complained about it, and Tony Elliott's complained that they just didn't have playable depth all over the field, and it often showed up. Injury in the second half? Yeah, injuries would cause them immense problems,

particularly in the secondary and the offensive line. Yeah. We really saw that in the offensive line. Yeah. Sickness in the offensive nine to the tail end of last year led players to play in the trenches that probably shouldn't be playing because the depth wasn't there and they really were exposed. To the point where offensive lineman parents were posting on social media

saying my son was sick. He could protect the quarterback. Right. Yeah, and the offensive line coaches they've had there the last several years, they've had their work cut out for them. First of all, it's a really tough position to play. It's not like a defensive line where you just react or whatever. Offensive line guys are some of the smartest guys on the football team. They usually are. Back when we used to have open locker rooms, I would always seek out

offensive linemen to find out what really happened because those guys, like you said, were intelligent. They, and they have to be, because their jobs are so complicated. Knowing how to recognize blitzes when they're coming, who they're supposed to block, whatever style blocking that they're doing. They have to think and react really quickly quickly and they have to work cohesively because if one of those five guys breaks down the whole offensive line can collapse. So, you know, again, they shouldn't have that problem this year. And that could be huge if this offensive line has depth and is as good as advertised.

Comments continue to come in. Kevin Yancey wants some of the juice over there. Give us some of the details of what was going on behind the scenes, Hootie, that led to the fallout with Coach O'Connor. Well, we've heard various things. It depends on who you want to believe. We've heard that he had issues about the lighting at Disharoon Park.

We've heard- Midweek scheduling. Midweek scheduling where they was limited to the travel. That maybe the scholarships under the new rule wasn't going to be funded properly. Again, one side of the equation argues that was not a problem. Another side of the equation says, well, it was until you came up too late with the money to fund those scholarships. It just depends on

who you want to believe that O'Connor was upset about things as minute as not broadcasting all their games on radio and that he had made that request and the radio station never heard anything from the athletic department requesting that. Lots of little things that tend to irritate coaches and when they're trying to run a complete national program and again we don't know how much of that stuff is innuendo and how much of it is factual. You hear things and then you hear counter, counter things to that. So again, I don't know that we'll ever get to the bottom of the story maybe years from now when somebody feels like

they can talk freely, but right now you have to go off once you're on the grapevine and sometimes that's not always accurate. This is an interesting question. This one's coming from Tennessee. Can either of you guys convince me that the Mississippi State job is better than the UVA job? Well, yeah, I think we can. I think the evidence is there in the numbers. They have one of the premier stadiums in college baseball. They seat over 10,000 people. They have, I think, of the 10 highest crowds in college baseball

for home games, Mississippi State owns all of those records. Again, they're paying him $2.9 million, which is the second highest salary in college baseball, behind only the Tennessee guy. college baseball behind only the Tennessee guy. Apparently they are going all out with the NIL and other money to support the program. They know they have to step it up to compete

with the better programs in the SEC. They've, and they've been one of the better programs. They've slacked off a little bit in the last couple years, although they did make the NCAA tournament this year under an interim coach. You got the full support of the president and the AD, which is usually very important to coaches in any sport. And I don't know what else you could ask for

really I mean to me that makes it a better job how do you feel about that? I think you hit it right there I think with all those comes at hands pressure I think yeah definitely more pressure yeah O'Con, O'Connor's build up so much fan base equity in Charlottesville that when the team doesn't make the NCAA tournament like, like it did this year, the fan base goes, well, we have next year, we have coach O'Connor. He goes a couple of times on not making the NCAA tournament at Mississippi State, they're going to call for his job. So so know everything you said is a hundred percent accurate.

I know for a fact he was incredibly upset that they didn't make the NCAA tournament this year and I felt like they should have made it but again he pointed back to some of that midweek. The midweek games. It hurt him because the teams that he usually dominates, they didn't dominate this year for whatever reason. Right. They didn't do themselves any favor. And it hurt their RPI. Right.

Even winning some of those games hurt their RPI. Where if they had just played the series at Florida State that was canceled, their RPY would have increased strongly just for playing a program of that measure. They had some bad luck with the Florida State series being canceled because of the shooting in Tallahassee. They also did not do themselves any favors with some of those losses midweek. No question. And he owned that. Yeah, he owned that.

Right, right. You know, I totally agree with Hootie. The job at Mississippi State is an upgrade here. But with an upgrade and with $2.9 million comes significant heat and an expectation of performance. And I think that's safe to say. And as Hootie said earlier in the show, Mississippi State is prioritizing baseball as the second most important sport in that program.

Football being a clear cut one, baseball too. That's rare in college athletics, folks. Michael Plecker watching the program, one of the Shenandoah Valley's finest backstops played in the New York Mets farm system. He says, apparently UVA is getting a very good head coach in Pollard.

It was between him and O'Connor at MSU, but the majority decision was to go with the UVA staff. He's got connections with the Mississippi State program with his coaching and baseball history. For the fan base that's watching, the next step is to rally around Pollard and watch him build the roster, and he's going to move quickly. This is a very good question. Does Hootie have any insight into the support financial resources that baseball is going to have from an NIL standpoint? And then we'll highlight Roger Voizena and Olivia Branch watching the program.

I don't think they've spoken about that yet. The house settlement has come out. I think the majority of the money from what we heard of the, what is it, 21 million dollars? 20.5. 20.5. I think I heard something like 75% of that's going to football, maybe 15% to basketball, and then the rest will be split up. Women's basketball is getting a chunk of it, but you're 100% right. The lion's share of this is going to football folks. Yeah, and the reason for that is that football brings in the revenue to support all the other sports, particularly non-revenue. There's only two sports that makes money at UVA,

and that's football and basketball, and it's pretty much the way it is everywhere. All the other programs essentially lose money, a lot of money. So if you don't have a successful football program that's bringing in, I mean, look at the size of the stadiums. You could sell out basketball games and it's 14,000 plus. If you sell out Scott Stadium, that's 60,000 people

for seven home games. That can bring in, generate a lot of revenue and plus TV money. But from what I understand that's the breakup of the house element money. As far as other monies don't know, we really don't hear that much about what their budgets are and what kind of NIL resources they have for sports outside of football and basketball. Comments continue to come in here. This is from Chad Wood.

He's watching in Crozet. He says Pollard was the best hire that could have made all things considered. I think Chris Pollard will save the fan base and the stands will be full again. Chad Wood, I also agree with you. You have a good temperature and pulse of the fan base. I agree. I think the fans are going to rally around Pollard. The questions that are coming in here is football.

How do you draw this is a great question here if football continues to play before half empty stadiums or more how is that apathy not going to bleed into the other sports I think if the other sports continue to win that takes care of itself and I think that Ryan Odom will win. I think Chris Pollard will win. They're both charismatic guys who are both solid coaches. They have good coaching staff surrounding them. They know how to recruit. I don't see that becoming a problem in basketball or baseball, so I don't think you'll have to worry about that. The big problem is the apathy with

the football program, which has been around for a long time. Even Bronco, as successful as he was, I think they were bowl eligible in five of his six years. were bowl eligible in five of his six years. Still really couldn't get generate the enthusiasm and the support with the fan base that's necessary for a program to be a difference maker. I don't understand the hate from the fan base on Bronco. A lot of folks saying he didn't have us going in the right direction. It was smart to make the move. I don't understand the hate from the fan base on Bronco. A lot of folks saying he didn't have us going in the right direction. It was smart to make the move. I don't understand that. Well, you know, that's a good question. I know that he desperately fought for the new facility and even made a $500,000 donation if I recall to kickstart things and

I think with COVID and some of the losing it was difficult to generate the funds for that. I guess the economy was not so good either. But I think Bronco knew how to win. He knew how to build a program. And he had him in a bowl game in his second season here and took him to the- Took him to the Orange Bowl, didn't he? Yeah, to the Atlantic Division Championship. That's the only time they'd ever won that

since they went to divisions, played a really good Clemson team in the ACC Championship and got routed, but that was to be expected, and then played essentially a top 10 Florida team. Loaded Florida team. With yeah, with tons of NFL talent, played them pretty strong overall in the Orange Bowl. There hasn't been a whole lot of New Year's Day

or New Year's bowl games played by Virginia over the years. And you know, he, again, bowl games played by Virginia over the years. And, you know, again, I think they were bowl eligible, five of his six years. The first year, it was a disaster, but even he said the program was in much worse shape than he had ever imagined. It was in shambles.

Yeah. He won two games, it was in shambles. Yeah, and got blown out by Richmond in the opening game of his career here. He didn't have any talent. Didn't have much talent. Uh, needed a lot of things. Uh, even Carla, uh, did some emergency meetings with football supporters to bring in some extra revenue to help them get brought up to modern standards with other ACC programs

that Virginia was lacking. And so I don't know that Bronco, I don't know what else he could have done. Again, he was hit hard by the COVID years and Virginia took COVID maybe more seriously than any other football program in the country at the time, if I recall. So all those things were working against him. Again, I don't know what else he could have done during his time here. I think had he stayed, he probably would have continued to build a winning program.

I think that's 100% right. I think he was... He went out to New Mexico and they and, uh, they didn't win as many games as he would like, but they turned it around and they were, they were playing really close games. And now he's at, uh, where is it? Is it Utah state state? I believe so.

I mean, guys, he wanted to stay. He had a majestic home in this area. Oh yeah. He had a perfect place. I think. Oh, yeah, he had a perfect place. I think Chris bought his house, right? Chris Long? Called it his ranch. Yeah, called it his ranch. Yeah, Chris Long bought it. Chris Long bought it. I mean, he didn't, when you when you start

telling folks of the Mormon faith that they have to make changes with their coaching staff, that's not going to go well. And a good example of that is look at the coaching staff he has now, a lot of similar faces. Yeah. Yeah. These guys are loyal. This is an interesting question, and this is only going to heat up, Hootie.

Multiple people are saying this. If the team falters out of the gate football, how much leash does Elliott have, and who's on the short list to replace him? Wow. I'm sure they have one. I'm not privy to who might be on it. Um, it probably depends on how much they want to spend and what kind of coach they would like to bring in if that, if that does occur, um, what's their schedule again?

I know they opened up with Coastal Carolina. I haven't heard. They should win that easily. I think the second week they're at NC State. In Raleigh, which we all questioned why they would make that a non-conference game. I don't know why they scheduled that game to begin with because that's going to be an awfully hard game to win on the road. William & Mary, the third game. Should win that one even though William & Mary is a good program. William & Mary always plays UVA tough. Charlottesville, Stanford and Charlottesville should win that one. Should. Yeah. Florida State,

Charlottesville. Don't know what to expect out of Florida State. They, I think they're gonna rebound. They were probably the most disappointing program in the nation last year. Yeah. You got them here and you have at least have a chance to win that game. Yeah. In most years past, that wouldn't be the case. But if they struggle out of the gate with that schedule, then yeah, I think he's probably in trouble. Louisville, in Louisville, first week of October.

That's going to be a tough one. Hugely tough. Washington State for homecoming. Obviously, they saw something there that they must feel like that they can win or they would I don't think they would have scheduled that game. For homecoming right. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, South Soldis rivalry. Bill Belichick. Was it coach Belichick or is it his girlfriend this time?

Does he catch fair heat or unfair heat? A little bit of both. I mean the man is in his early 70s dating a 20-year-old supermodel. Can we give the man some props over there? I think a lot of guys out there would probably trade places with him. Right?

But I mean, that's never an easy game for Virginia. No, never an easy game. They're usually some of the most exciting games that Virginia plays every year against Carolina. But to beat those guys in Chapel Hill is going to be a challenge. Cal and Berkeley, Wake Forest, Family Weekend, Charlottesville, Duke and Durham, and of course Virginia Tech and Charlottesville. This is a schedule that is extremely manageable.

It is, again, some of the people who rate those sort of things said it's the most manageable Power 4 schedule in the country. Those Wake and Duke games are gonna be very important, I think, and then if you've got some momentum going into the final weekend against Tech, if you're ever gonna beat Tech again, this should be the year to do it. But there's three or four toss up games in there that's gonna determine their fate

as to whether they have a winning season, losing season, a break even season. And one of the biggest games- Or an outstanding season. One of the biggest games of the season might be NC State in week two. That one is huge. If they could pull off a win in Raleigh, which is again, it's gonna be a real challenge. If they can win that one, they should be really hot out of the gate.

If they lose and stumble down there, then they're leaving the door open for a lot of questions. Yeah, they beat NC State in Raleigh in Week 2. You could start the season 4-0 going into a night game against the Seminoles at Scott Stadium. Yeah, and that would make that… A big-time matchup. Yeah, a giant. Yeah, that would make that a big time matchup that would probably garner

I mean goodness gracious the game is scheduled for ESPN at 7 o'clock Yeah, I mean you're talking about 4-0 going into Florida a Florida State game at Scott Stadium with national television and and a 5-0 start on the line I mean, that's monumental that NC State game in week two guys is is is huge McChesney says if if if the schedule goes well for Elliott, but he loses to Virginia Tech, does that mean bye-bye for Elliott? I don't think so, if he does well

with the rest of the schedule and gets them into a bowl game, maybe wins seven games. maybe win seven games. I think even though the fan base would be extremely disappointed, it's hard to expect wins over Virginia Tech. If you look at the history of the series, I think that would leave a bad taste in people's mouths, but if they're in a bowl game, even if it's a minor bowl, which probably would be, I think that's what people are looking for out of this season is just to not have a losing season and to get to a ball game. Again, a lot of people are not going to be satisfied with that,

but it shows signs of progress, shows signs that he has things pointed in the right direction, and maybe not getting there as fast as some people would like him to get. But I think that would, I don't think he would be fired under the circumstances by any chance. Jeremy Wilson watching in Cookeville Tennessee. He says this program has never recovered from the Mike London era. Tim Bates watching the program in Evington, Virginia. Personally, I would like to have Coach Bronco Beninhall back at the helm. Coach Tony Elliott seems to be in over his head,

head and arms and getting tired. We're getting tired of treading water. Chad Wood gives props to Bronco and says, Bronco took us to another level. We would love a seven and eight win seasons and a trip to the ACC championship right now. Wood also adds, UVA football doesn't typically fire in season.

Will this be the year with all this investment, one of the easiest schedules in the country? If Elliott does not do it now, or if UVA does not do it now, then this football team never will. The in-season hire, can you remember a time? We actually talked about this? Yeah, the only time and in season fire has happened was women's volleyball. And that was because of a lot of off. I mean, how do we

characterize this off the court? Trouble, right? With players and coaches? Yeah, yeah. Leaving at that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, yeah, I don't know for sure. I know what happened. Yeah. Can't prove it. So I don't want to end up in the court. Right. Right. But yeah, it's never happened to a football coach that I can think of. I know Sonny Randall was fired. But it was after the last game of the season. I don't know much about, even though I did the history, doing the history of Virginia football

and looking up most of the coaches records and doing some research on all those guys, I don't think any coach was ever fired till the season was over. And I don't think that those guys. I don't think any coach was ever fired till the season was over. And I don't think that would happen this year either. Yeah, I mean. Even if it gets off to a bad start. I don't think that would happen either

because if he was fired, then they'd have to make one of the guys on his staff an interim coach. And who are they gonna do for that? Interim head coach. I don't think that would satisfy the fan base either. No. We're just gonna take it on the chin. Yeah. And that's just not the Virginia way.

They just, they just don't fire people until their contract is, or at least the season is up. Their contract might not be up. The season is usually has to be complete before they would pull the trigger on somebody Tim Bates corrects me. He says he's watching and in Lynchburg right now instead of Evington, Virginia Appreciate you watching the program Tim Bates goodness gracious the comments are coming in quickly with football fans are frustrated and I understand the frustration folks

I understand the frustration. I'm frustrated Been going to football games since I was coaches are frustration. I'm frustrated. I've been going to football games since I was... I think the coaches are frustrated. Everyone's frustrated. I was talking to I've been going to football games at Scott Stadium since I was knee-high to my dad. So goodness gracious, 30-some years, that's 40 years. I was talking to a hotel year who watches the program. He asked me not to utilize his name but having the conversation with him and he said the impact with football should not be underrated or underestimated with the impact it's having on economy in Charlottesville and Amarok County. I'm certain of that because I was around for

the good times and the best times in Virginia football. And I saw what, how that lit up the town back in 89 and 90 when they were one of the best programs in the country. 95, 98, some of those teams generated so much enthusiasm. I remember in the 1990 season when they slowly rose in the polls week by week, everybody in front of them kept getting knocked off and Virginia kept winning by landslide scores with Sean Moore and Herman Moore and those guys. The athletic director at that point, Jim Copeland, and I don't know if it was his idea or somebody else's, but they would throw a big party every Friday night before a home game at various locations around Charlottesville. There'd be pep rallies. They would throw a big party for the media,

the incoming media, incoming officials from the other school and dignitaries from around the state. There was national media coming in here by the boatloads because Virginia was the Cinderella story of college football. I could see firsthand how it generated the economy with restaurants and hotels and people coming in and spending money freely on whatever. So yeah, I've seen that happen and I've seen the opposite where you can walk down the corner and

there's not a lot of people there. I remember doing a big book signing in front of Mincers on a football Saturday and the season wasn't going that well and there just wasn't that many people out and about and excited about football Saturdays. I mean, this puts it in perspective. Raising Canes on the UVA corner is closing for the summer. Little John's reopened for a 2.0 version of itself, lasted a year and change.

It's completely closed. You talk to any bar owner on the UVA corner, and they would say that revenue is flat compared to pre-COVID at best, and most likely down. All the businesses on the corner are struggling. Yeah. All of them. And that was not what it was when I was a student

at the University of Virginia in the early 2000s. Just not what it was. Vanessa Parkhill said, we came to town in 1990. UVA had hit number one that season and it was pandemonium. I remember it extremely well. Others are highlighting paint the town orange. The orange V sabers painted on the streets. That's not happening anymore. There was a time where on Fridays on the downtown mall the marching band would take over the downtown mall and march playing music down the downtown mall down

Main Street. That doesn't happen anymore. There were times where the hill was just a big party. This past year they limited access to the hill and then had to open up access to the hill again because fans were revolting. Yeah, that was a dumb decision on EVH part. It was, you know, and I'm not pushing for overindulgence when it comes to alcohol. Fourth year, fifth, no more. The ties and sundresses, no more. The tailgating, not what it was. It's something, folks.

They have a problem on their hands that they gotta figure out. And frankly, is that Carla Williams' top priority here? It should be. I mean, that's why she was brought here in the first place, was to fix football. I mean, that's why she was brought here in the first place, was to fix football. And she acknowledged that. And that was probably the reason she got the job in the first place,

because she had worked with Georgia football. And so far, except for that little spark that Bronco brought, we haven't seen, we haven't seen much. If you're gonna do it, if you can't do it this year, then I don't know where you go from here. Right. How much, this is an interesting question, how much of the heat on Tony Elliott trickles to Carla Williams as well? I'm sure it does because she hand-picked him and came down to him and the guy that went to Duke and is now at Texas A&M, whose name escapes me at the moment, but it came down to those two and she went after Tony Elliott. So that's her pick and that's

that's part of her legacy. Absolutely, absolutely. Hootie Rackliff, Jerry Rackliff, the namesake website jerryrackliff.com. What is in your editorial and reporting hopper Hootie? Well we'll have the update on DeRitter, the new football commitment yesterday. I thought it was up already, but it's not. We'll be keeping our own on recruiting because it's still going on, football and basketball. We'll have a list of all the new offers by Ryan Odom for the next recruiting class. We'll have some feature stories on golf and basketball and so a lot of stuff. Readership is off the charts. Highest it's ever been really. We're almost at our seventh year at JerryRackliff.com.

And so we want to thank people for supporting us all these years and we hope we can continue it forward. JerryRackliff.com, JerryRackliff.com folks. We're on the website every day. The source for anything UVA athletic related, JerryRackliff.com. Literally on the website every single day. And I follow him on Twitter where his retweets are college athletic related and some of the

most adorable canines and dogs related as well, as the man absolutely loves dogs. And frankly, the entire team here at the Jerry and Jerry show, passionate about dogs. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. Thank you, Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. Thank you, Judah Wickhauer. The I Love Seville show is up at 12.30, so less than an hour. Thank you kindly for joining us, guys. So long. Nice guy.

Same to you..