The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - How Does Ron Sanchez Use The Holiday Break?; UVA Basketball Has Lost 2-Straight Games

Episode Date: December 10, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: How Does Ron Sanchez Use The Holiday Break? UVA Basketball Has Lost 2-Straight Games Turnovers & Defense Have Plagued The Hoos Why Has TJ Power Been A Non Factor So Far? Dai Dai Ames & Christian Bliss Injury Updates Does Bennett Ball Work In Transfer Portal Era? UVA Football Transfer Portal News & Notes Anonymous Donor Gives Millions To UVA NIL 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. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show, a program that is live on social media and podcasting platforms all over the world. Today's program is dynamic. We encourage you, the viewer and listener, to join us in the discussion. Share your thoughts, share your ideas, ask questions, share your concerns. I think there is quite a bit of concern in Wahoo Nation, as this Virginia basketball team seems to be, at least in the early stages of the season, underachieving.

A wise man once told me his name, Fletcher Aratt, the late Fork Union Military Academy postgraduate basketball coach, that in college hoops, anything before New Year's really does not matter. That may be the case, but it certainly will get the fan base riled up and an SMU loss to the tune of 63-51 in Dallas Texas has a lot of us scratching our heads we'll talk basketball with Hootie Ratcliffe we'll talk transfer portal with the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera he's our glue guy if you can go to the studio camera and then a two-shot and welcome the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer.

My phone is buzzing with questions for Hootie Ratcliffe already. First, Tuesday morning, my friend, good morning. Good morning to you and hope everything is well. Everything is well. I've been under the weather a little bit, but I'm bouncing back. It looks like you've shaked it. Yeah, I think so. I hope I can get through the broadcast without coughing.

You got a little more color in the face. I feel a lot better. That's good. I almost feel human again. Well, it's great to sit across from you, per usual. We'll start, as we always do, open-ended. The awesome aspects of your columns, in particular, some of my favorite ones, was the scatter shooting column. Scatter shooting, Hootie Ratcliffe, where would you like to begin?

I think the basketball team, I agree with you. I think Virginia was a better team than SMU, but it's tough to go on the road, especially back-to-back road games where you weren't at home in between because they flew from Florida to Dallas. But that wasn't the problem as much as having two starters essentially miss the entire game with day-to-day aims going down after seven minutes with an ankle issue that we still aren't sure the degree of that injury and the fact that Elijah Saunders was in foul trouble the entire time and practically didn't play

at all and that's two of the main characters in your lineup and to go on the road like that and be missing those two key players is like playing with one hand tied behind your back. And we saw the result. And Virginia, as Tony Bennett used to say, walks such a thin line that you can't afford for that to happen because it's still a young basketball team and there's just no one there to come in and step into those roles and make an impact at this point. Before the season's over, there probably will be.

But at this point of the season, it's just too early for them to be able to bounce back from something like that. And I think that's why we saw the scoring droughts and why we saw the Mustangs be able to go on a couple of runs like that. They just didn't have the personnel to stop it. Significant scoring droughts against the Mustangs. Waynesboro's finest, Kevin Yancey, says good morning to the crew. He also wants us to talk about the transfer portal

and the concerns with filling out the roster. That is certainly a topic we'll talk about today, Mr. Kevin Yancey. Olivia Branch watching the program, thank you kindly for watching us. The TV station down the road watching us right now. I'm going to be very straightforward here. Ron Sanchez has said to all of us, the only thing that separates me from Tony Bennett is a boatload of victories in titles and championships. A little over 300.

A little over 300. He referenced the fact that Tony's got a lot of wins. I don't have a lot of wins. But we run the same program and we coach the exact same. Very straightforward question for you. In a transfer portal era, does the pack line, a slow down tempo to offense that really is trying to minimize possessions and Bennett basketball, does that still work today? Well we'll see. It's going to be a great experiment to see how that develops under Ron. Certainly he's a disciple of Tony Bennett

and tries to do things the same way. I'm sure he's coaching his butt off over there trying to advance the youth of this team. But it's awfully hard to get young players to grow up quicker than they're ready to. And so that's a little bit of a handicap. But that's the big question right now. As you look at the starting lineup, Day Day's new.

Right. Elijah Saunders is new. You're playing Kofi in a very key role. Yeah. You're trying to get T.J. Power up to speed. And T.J. Power, frankly, looks like he's not going to get off the bench this year, at least at this point of the season. You've got key guys on the team that are completely new to the program

trying to learn a nuanced defense and offense. Yeah, and that's the challenge. In a developmental program like this, again, it's a great experiment to see if they can advance those guys and how long does it take for them. It may be on an individual basis on how quickly some of these guys can learn and adapt. We won't know the answer to that for a while. And it's going to be the challenge of Ron Sanchez into whether he can take the interim tag off of this job title

as to whether he can develop these guys into some kind of fans' expectations and his own expectations as to whether these guys can duplicate Tony's success and get to the NCAA tournament and be effective in the ACC. Can you do that in this day and age with transfer players trying to learn something that sometimes will take a year or two. Can they do that on the fly? I don't know if anybody has the answers to that, Jerry. And this year will answer that question as to whether it can be done or not.

And if it can't, then I don't know what direction you go in. Kevin Higgins makes a very good point. Greenwood, Virginia's finest. Ron Sanchez was 72 and 78 at Charlotte. I'm sure he's a great guy and understands Tony Bennett's coaching program well. It's one thing to understand a process, but a coach has to adapt in a split second in real-life conditions. I just don't see it happening.

These are young men, but we are ages away from hanging with the Duke Blue Devils and the top teams of the ACC. I love UVA, but no dice, guys. UVA basketball and football will unfortunately be at the bottom for a while. This type of comment is everywhere right now on the feed. Yeah. He could be right. I don't know how you turn the football program around

with they're losing 50-plus players. They lost roughly half the roster to exhausted eligibility. Right. And then more players have entered the transfer portal. Thirteen players entered the portal yesterday. I haven't checked today to see if there's any additions or not, but certainly it's easier in basketball because the numbers are significantly different. But again, we're talking about the developmental program as compared to Duke and Carolina where you have to learn their systems,

but it's not quite as complicated in terms of the pack line. I mean, it's tough. And, you know, in all fairness to Ron Sanchez, he took over a Charlotte program that was pretty much bankrupt, and he did build them into a winner. He had his best season at the end there with more than 20 wins, and that was his first head coaching experience and all that that goes with it. But, I mean, he was given the keys to a Jaguar, and we'll see if he can drive it.

I don't know. I mean, we're in a wild frontier that we've never seen before, and it's going to test people like nothing has ever tested them before. And, you know, it's almost like it's the haves and the haves nots and we're seeing things change week by week jerry like with the news you mentioned when we came on the air about virginia tech's decision to on on the money thing this is bananas you want me to pass it along to them yeah yeah go ahead and for because I haven't read the story yet either. I haven't even finished reading the story.

I don't know the details. This was released this morning. I haven't even finished reading the story. Virginia Tech plans on distributing. This is reported. This is news passed along to Bill Roth, Virginia Tech play-by-play broadcaster. He sat down with Whit Babcock on Friday, the athletic director of Virginia Tech, and now the Roanoke Times, Damian Sortalet from the Roanoke Times is reporting it.

I'll read a few paragraphs from the story. Virginia Tech plans on distributing the maximum amount allowed in revenue sharing with student-athletes for the 2025-2026 school year. Hokies Athletic Director Whit Babcock confirmed this in a sit-down interview with Bill Roth. The projected cap for revenue sharing with student- athletes is $20,500,000. Virginia Tech is going to share the entire $20,500,000 with athletes. That figure is 22% of the average power conference school revenue from the previous year and is expected the cap will rise 4% each year as part of the pending national settlement agreement. Schools can determine whether to share the full $20,500,000 or a portion of it with student athletes.

Virginia Tech on Friday just said they are completely all in. Pot committed to NIL and paying athletes. Well, that's significant. It's going to be interesting to see what Virginia does in light of that. And like I said, things are changing week to week. And we don't know. We don't know what Virginia is going to do. You know, last week was significant in that the football program was given given a multimillion-dollar donation by an anonymous donor,

and we are assuming that most of that will be used for NIL money and other ways to recruit. And certainly that's significant. Again, we don't know how that they plan on using all that or any of their strategies because, one, we haven't had a chance to talk to anybody, but two, I don't know if they'll tell us anyway. But, again, that still doesn't eliminate the obstacle that they're still going to have to go after mostly grad transfers because of the 60 hours thing that we were talking about last week where that eliminates a lot of the underclassmen that you're trying to get to transfer in.

We've heard over a week ago that more than a dozen guys had already been turned down by admissions, and that was more than a week ago. So it's a brand-new world, and, you know, you better be ready to pony up or you're going to get left behind. And it's that simple. And right now we're all left guessing in the dark as to how Virginia is going to approach these things because we haven't heard anything.

John Allison, thank you for watching the program. Vanessa Parkhill, thank you for watching the program. John Allison, thank you for watching the program. Vanessa Parkhill, thank you for watching the program. James Watson, thank you for watching the program. Lisa Kustalo, Bill McChesney, just to name a few. This is a point that Mr. Higgins has made, and I think it's a very fair point, that Tony Elliott and the Virginia football staff knew that half the roster this year would have had exhausted eligibility.

Oh, absolutely. They knew this a few years ago. At least a year ago. At least a year ago. He says, anyone running any business, if they allow something like that to happen and there's no plan in place, it makes no sense. This is a lifetime UVA fan making that comment. Well, you know, and he makes a very valid point. But, you know, what else were they supposed to do?

I mean, they were lucky that they got a lot of these guys to come back for an extra year. And a lot of them were benefactors of not only the COVID year, but also the tragedy extra year that they got. Most schools didn't even get that. So, and part of it was because when Tony Elliott got here too there were probably guys in the program that he probably felt like weren't ACC caliber players but he didn't run them off he decided to honor their scholarships and let them play through so some of that was probably dead weight to begin with

but uh they're in a predicament and uh i mean they signed 19 high school kids which was good they didn't they didn't lose any of their commitments. That was important. And now they've got to make up the rest through the transfer portal and some preferred walk-ons. College coaches at this moment still aren't sure what the scholarship limit's going to

be because the NCAA hasn't announced that yet. They don't know if it's currently 85, but we don't know if we assume that's going to be expanded. Some people are guessing 105. Some people think it'll be less. So coaches' hands are a little bit tied. They don't even know exactly how many new people they can bring in.

So you talk about a complicated mess. I don't know. I mean, how many transfers is he planning on bringing in? Right now, if you bring in the 19 guys we don't know how many are really left on the roster at this point uh they've just had 13 say they're leaving so that you're up plus six in that but then there's the other 40 to 43 guys that have exhausted eligibility. So you're down, what, 49 players or so? You're down half a roster.

You can't bring in 49 transfers, can you? I don't have that answer. I literally don't know that answer. I don't either. I was going to ask you that question. I mean, you can if you're Colorado. Is half his roster going to be transfers? It's got to be. I mean.

And can they do that? Can they find 49 people that can qualify to get into UVA? You're not going to get 49 graduate transfers to come in here. Right. I guarantee you that. Do you hear what the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer is saying here, guys, and Hootie Ratcliffe? He's going to have to replace half the roster with transfers.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know how else you can do it. And the folks they're targeting, I mean, you've got what? A linebacker from East Carolina, an offensive lineman from Cal Poly, a defensive end from Kent State, an offensive lineman from Cal Poly, a defensive end from Kent State, an offensive lineman from Harvard, a wide receiver from North Texas, a defensive end from Elon, a defensive tackle from Fresno State, a defensive back from Miami of Ohio, and a defensive end from Elon. I mean, a running back from Penn.

He's going after the transfers that are being targeted with scholarships are, I'm not sure, of ACC caliber player profile. Well, I'm not sure either, and I'm not sure of that either. And that's why they're going, they're not winning. You can't win. I mean, you can take some of those guys and they can fill holes, and some of them are obviously better than perhaps they were given credit for

when they were originally recruited or have developed in other programs. But when you're recruiting those kind of guys and your opponents are recruiting guys from FBS schools who have had some measure of success. You can't line up with those guys and expect to win. You just can't do it. It's pure fantasy to think otherwise. I know that you feel like you can coach players up and all that stuff, but look at the evidence. Three wins, three wins, five wins.

I don't know how you get out of this hole. I really don't. It was hard enough under the old rules and the old methods. I don't know how you get out of this. I really don't. It was hard enough under the old rules and the old methods. I don't know how you get out of this. I really don't. And if you switch coaches, the next coach is faced with the same set of problems. So I don't know if that's a solution or not. You'll love this comment.

Dave, is it Scarang gala scaring jello says how come you never aged jerry rackliff the only difference the only difference he and i worked together a long time that's what he's saying the only difference between what i'm seeing on my screen and what i saw looking across the desk at the southwest times and pelaski many years ago is you don't wear glasses anymore. And don't tell me it's all due to clean living. Well, it has been lately, that's for sure. But I had my moments in my youth, for sure, like most of us did. But Dave is a dear friend, and he was one of the first people to come to my aid when I lost my job

and tried to help me get back on my feet again with a new venture. And we worked together in a couple of places in Pulaski when we tried some new things in the newspaper business that really hadn't been done before. Dave was a student at Virginia Tech, and I hired him. And we were over three newspapers in those days, three small-town newspapers. And one of them was, which is now defunct, but it was called the Blacksburg Sun. And we would put out during football season and basketball season we would put out in those days which was unheard of a 14-page sports section

get out of town yeah and especially for a community paper the Sunday paper was the front section of the paper was the sports section because we knew how important sports was to our readers. And so it was a grand experiment. I'm not sure that it worked, but it was fun and challenging trying to fill up a 14-page sports section with a lot of space in it. And sometimes we were scrambling at 2 o'clock in the morning to run 30-inch soccer stories from New York Cosmos or somebody.

Yeah, but Dave and I have been through a lot of pretty cool stuff in our careers. And he wisely got out of the business and got into the furniture business and did very well. And he's a really intelligent guy. Dave, he also hired me. I was out of UVA. You were out of Virginia Tech at the Daily Progress. And a lot of the viewers and listeners may not know this. With any newspaper, the most read section is the sports section. And it's not even close. It is not even close. The most read section was sports. The second most read section of a newspaper, a lot of folks probably don't know this either,

was the obituaries. Obituaries and back in the day, the one ads. Yeah. Classified ads, yeah. That's right. And then after that, you start getting into the weather. Of course, the weather's been replaced by our phones. And then you get into the A section, the front page. A lot of folks don't realize that, the value of sports for a community.

We'll get back to the topics at hand. Virginia Tech's athletic director, Whit Babcock, says that $20,500,000, the large majority of that will be shared with football, men's basketball, and women's basketball. So the money is going to go to the revenue sports. And then he said this $20,500,000, Virginia Tech's athletic director, Whit Babcock, said we're in fundraising mode. It's not like we just have $20 million lying around everywhere. We have this $20 million for the 25-26 athletic season, and we're literally grinding right now to build the war chest for the following season.

And the expectation is it's going to uptick 4% every year. Folks, it's an arms race right now, college sports. And frankly speaking, I hate to say this, it's going to cause the gentrification of fan bases. Because the fan base, the ticket experience, the concession experience, the parking experience is going to go up in costs to help cover this war chest, this arms race, this $20,500,000 that's being raised every year with a 4% compound increase every academic calendar year. Wow, that puts a lot of pressure on our program. And when your fan base is not bought in, that really complicates things.

You were ahead of me, but you're exactly right. Because you have to fill the stands now. Yeah, and the Hokies are doing that. The Hokies are doing it. You look at that game in Blacksburg a little over a week ago. It was 31 degrees. At game time, I think it got down to low 20s. Low 20s. And I don't know if it was totally sold out, but I think there were 60-some thousand people there.

That was huge, I think. That shows you the difference in the two fan bases. If that game had been in Charlottesville, there might have been 35,000 people there, and a lot of them would have been wearing maroon probably. But, I mean, Virginia didn't draw well this year, and what's it going to be like next fall? Because some people are disappointed that there wasn't a coaching change. Some people are disappointed that there wasn't at least some staff changes. The fact that... What do you make of the no staff changes?

I'm a little surprised. I kind of thought that there might be some kind of change. If nothing else, I thought maybe just for appearance sake that Tony Elliott might take over the play calling duties, and I guess he still could, and relegate his offensive coordinator to a lesser role, but if he didn't want to fire him, which I think probably would have worked under the previous regime

with Bronco Mendenhall when he was upset that they wanted to fire his defensive coordinator, which was certainly justified. But I think had Bronco just taken over that role and kept the guy on his staff, I think things would have probably calmed down a little bit and they could have continued on. But change was forced and we saw what happened. But, again, I was surprised because if it was any other normal program that has struggled like this one has, and, again, for those who are pointing out, well, this program's had obstacles no other programs ever had, I understand that. But still, you have the losing this record in FBS football over a three-year span,

one of the worst offenses in the country over a three-year span. Can't fill your stadium, can't beat your rival, losing in-state recruiting. Yeah. Have apathy at all-time high. Yeah, I mean, you've got to do something to appease your fan base, and nothing was done. I understand that the money could infuse some things into the program, but again, you can go after people, but are you going after the right people? I mean, if you fill your roster with guys from the Ivy League and FCS programs,

I just don't know how much success you can have on this level. And are you going to do that year after year after year? Because if it is, you're essentially, you essentially become an FCS program. You are an FCS program. Yeah. We're basically looking at a roster. Bob Schott of Bergwood's Finest watching the program. Kevin Yancey highlights the fact that a lot of these assistant coaches

got contract extensions. That surprising news recently came out, including the offensive coordinator, Des Kitchings. Yeah, both coordinators. Both coordinators. People were flabbergasted by that. If you fill the roster with transfers from the Ivy League and from lower-tiered football, that is who you become.

And that's what Virginia has become. And you just can't finish in the upper half of the ACC by doing that. Prove me wrong, but that's my philosophy is that it's just not going to work. I just don't see how that can possibly work. Vanessa Parkhill wants some Calandria updates. Is Calandria officially in the portal? Any chance he could come back to UVA? And is Calandria getting interest from any programs currently? Well, he's officially in the portal? Any chance he could come back to UVA? And is Calandria getting interest from any programs currently?

Well, he's definitely in the portal. We don't have any connection to these guys once the season's over, unless you can just happen to run into them or something. But he's definitely in the portal. He could choose to come back, but i don't think he will um i'm not sure he would be open uh welcome back with open arms if he did ask to come back oh they'd roll off the red carpet well i would um especially when Especially when Tony Elliott said it wasn't his intention to run him off in the first place by benching him, although I think he had to have understood the possible repercussions of that when he did it. The first thing I would have done.

Which I thought was a mistake. Huge mistake. The first thing I would have done if I was Tony Elliott after the anonymous donation this past Thursday afternoon is called Anthony Calandri and said, how much money do you want? Tony Elliott, after the anonymous donation this past Thursday afternoon, called Anthony Calandri and said, how much money do you want? Yeah, it wouldn't have hurt. I mean, and I don't know if it's about money with Calandri because he's from a wealthy family, but I just thought it was a huge mistake putting him on the bench for the most important game of the season after having started 11 straight games.

And I thought Virginia, and this is not throwing shadow on Tony Musket because I admire everything he did. But Virginia had essentially no chance going into Blacksburg without Calandria starting a quarterback. I don't think they had much of a chance with him. But I think it could have been a closer game. And, again, was it worth the risk of losing him to the portal by putting him on the bench? Essentially, essentially throwing him, making him the scapegoat, essentially perceived to be the guy who fell on the sword for the season struggles

by benching the most important position, a position that has more attention than even the head coach. Yeah, I just don't understand that decision. Yeah. Bob Shott has got a question. James Watson's got questions all over the feed coach. Yeah, I just, I don't understand that decision. Yeah, it's, it's Bob Shott has got a question. James Watson's got questions are all over the feed today. Um, and I understand why James Watson, what is the minimum amount of money that was is needed to be donated to make a difference since we don't know what that donation was. So what Mr. Watson, who's a UVA graduate and a proud supporter of UVA athletics is saying, saying, how much money do we need to have a

true impact? I'll try to add some color to that, some background to that, and then pass it along to you. The run-of-time story that's out today, Virginia Tech is going to share the full amount, $20,500,000 for the upcoming athletic season and that 20 million five hundred thousand is primarily going to be shared with athletes football men's basketball and women's basketball you got to believe that football and men's basketball are going to get the large lion share of this virginia tech is also saying it's raising money for the 2026 2027 season literally right now i threw it to hootie and Hootie made the perfect analysis that Virginia Tech is filling its stadium, Lane Stadium, with fans, which allows it to continue

filling the war chest with more money. UVA's football game, home games, are losing more than a million dollars per home game because of meager attendance, poor concession sales, poor merchandise sales, poor parking sales, etc. So we clearly have an issue here. The other issue that I'm seeing here that I want to pass to you and then, Bob, I'm going to your comments here, is the TV deal. The revenue sharing with TV deals with conferences. It's going to put more priority on these TV deals, these revenue sharing deals with ESPN, whatever the network is, now if programs and athletic departments

have to dish out $20,500,000 with a 4% increase every year with its athletes to stay relevant, that revenue-sharing with the TV networks is critical. Oh, no question. I guess the big question is, will Virginia match what Virginia Tech's doing in terms of that $20.5 million? I don't see how it can.

How can they afford not to? How do they do it? Yeah, that's the question. More anonymous donors? Well, that's what the anonymous donor was hoping for with his gift or her gift. I don't know who, obviously don't know who it was, but that was one of their expressed desires was challenging other people to step up and contribute and try to get Virginia over the hump.

But is money alone going to do that? I don't think it is. That still doesn't solve some of the problems. And, again, if you're having to go after grad transfers only, or at least a high percentage of those. And if they're all coming from the Ivy League or FCS or mid-major FBS schools, how can you compete on this level when your opponents are going after higher caliber athletes. It's such a conundrum. I don't know what the answer is.

I just don't know. They've never been faced with a problem quite like this before. I think this is a bigger crossroads for the Virginia football team. The last time Virginia football has been in this predicament, and no one knows this better than you, was when George Walsh took over this program. Yeah. Because at that time you had, my dad's, as I mentioned on the show, a Virginia graduate.

He suffered through the Besquick, Sonny Randall years. When he was in college, was passing out, he said, I passed out buttons to whoever would take one that said, fire Dick Beswick on it. And he speaks about George Welch to this day as if the man walks on water. Yeah, and I'll give Dick Beswick some credit. I got to know him well, even though I didn't cover him,

but I got to know him, even though he wasn't even here anymore. I made it a point I got to know him well, even though I didn't cover him, but I got to know him even though he wasn't even here anymore. I made it a point to get to know him and some of the other former coaches like Sonny Randall and George Blackburn and some of the other guys. I reached out to them. Dick Bestwick, even though he wasn't able to turn the program around, he did bring in some really good football players that George Welsh later down the road acknowledged Bestwick for that. And it's sort of, I don't want to take credit for it, but I kind of brought those two together

because there had been some ill feelings by Bestwick that George had never given him credit for supplying at least a good base of some talented players like Jim Dombrowski and Barry Word and some of those guys that George won with and were key players in turning the program around. And George finally admitted that down the road, and I got a picture of those two together, and it meant the world to Dick Bestwick that George gave him some credit for that. But, yeah, still, even though Beswick had brought in some talent, he wasn't able to turn the program around.

And George was a miracle worker in the fact that he built on that and had a winning season in his second year and had Virginia in its first bowl game ever in his third year and beat the number two team in the Big Ten in the Peach Bowl in a very physical football game. And George Welsers just don't walk in the door, just like Tony Bennett don't just walk in the door. These are Hall of Fame coaches, and if you're a fan base, you're probably lucky to have one every five to ten generations of programs. And I think George had a little help.

Virginia wasn't going to bend too much academically, but I think the president and the AD at that time probably went out of their way to try to help Georgia a little bit. I if that's even possible. But Virginia's faced with a massive problem right now. I think it's a more significant climb than when Welsh took over. Oh, I do too. Right now. Because, yeah, they're in similar. They were in a bigger hole then. Virginia has more money now.

They have better facilities now. When George was here, they wouldn't even bring recruits by the football stadium or any of that or let them see that the coaches were working in trailers outside of University Hall, they would take them to University Hall and show them the basketball arena because facilities were so bad. And they didn't have, at that point, they didn't have a football home per se. There was no McHugh Center, let alone a Hardy operations building, football operations building. But so in a lot of ways, they're not in this big a hole, and they have had a little bit more success.

I mean, coming off a season that could have been a bowl season, for whatever that's worth, but there are other issues that have them handicapped in the ACC race. I don't know that there's any other ACC school that is faced with quite the same problems that Virginia has. I'm not trying to pick on Virginia. I'm just trying to be a realist here. There's not a single ACC school that has these. Not a single one. The other ones that are as academically rigorous as UVA are making academic requirements less stringent for its football program. I think they're trying to work with the football program.

Virginia's not. And find ways to do that. If they are, they're not making it public. And they need to be a little more transparent over there and say, look realize what the situation is and this is what we're trying to do just if nothing else just to let their fan base know not just the big donors uh if because you know a lot of that's that's part of the apathy because a lot of the fan base believes that nobody cares. Throwing money on something is great, but it's not the solution to everything.

You just got to let your fan base know that you're trying to do something. Nobody's asking them to dumb down their academic program and to make their diplomas less worthy. The things that Duke and Carolina and Wake Forest and Georgia Tech have done to help football certainly hasn't tarnished their academic reputation. Hell, if anything, it can make the academics, having success in football can make the academics even more prestigious. When Michael Vick took Virginia Tech to the national championship, applications to Virginia Tech the following years skyrocketed.

Same thing happened here when George was winning, and they were considered the hot school and all the a lot of celebrities wanted their kids here a lot of prominent athletes wanted their kids here um it makes a difference and the donor that gave them multi-millions last week pointed that out, how important football is in bringing the alumni together in various ways. So, I mean, that's why they started or enhanced football here in the first place

back in the 1800s and the early 1900s when they were really good. The president of the school felt like the football was a gathering point for alumni and students and helped attract all the good things in a university. I don't understand what the resistance is. John Blair watching the program, he said he understands the concern about Calandria. He

also highlights that the tight end position is something we should focus on. He brings up Neville, the transfer from Harvard, Williamsburg native, Williamsburg, Virginia native right there. He said he's gone. This is a massive hole on the offense that needs to be filled for Virginia. Bob Shotta highlights this. We appreciate Birdwood's finest, Bob Shotta, watching the program. Who's going to spend the money with this new donation?

Who is going after the new talent and spending the additional donation dollars? It's not Carla Williams. It's not going to be Tony Elliott. Who's the one that's going to allocate the money and target the athletes? Is that the CAF Collective and Lowe Davis that spends the millions that are in the NIL war chest? I'm assuming that they're in charge of the money. Chad Wood says, and Hootie, we appreciate your multi-million dollar donation, but at least put your money on it.

Put your name on it. Well, you know, that's. It was not Hootie that did the multi-million dollar donation. If I had multi-millions, I probably wouldn't be sitting here this morning. This man would be at a golf course. I would be in Tahiti or somewhere playing golf and sipping Mai Tais. Hopefully you bring your friend Jerry with you. That's right.

You and I and Judah would all be sipping Mai Tais. Your beautiful lady. That's right. But thanks for that acknowledgement anyway. But, you know, I've talked to some people at UVA, and I know they're trying. I know they're trying hard, but I just don't know. I don't know how you get out of this hole. And I think they're just trying a lot of different things to see what might work and what might not. But, I mean, it's just such a problem. I don't know how you overcome all these hurdles.

You can go out and buy all these guys, but, again, if it's not, if you're lining up B players against A players every week, all the numbers and studies over the years have shown that that just doesn't work. It doesn't work. I mean, ladies and gentlemen, their transfer portal targets, there's four guys from Elon on the target list. From Elon. There's four guys from Elon on the target list. From Elon. And I'm not trying to throw shade at Elon here, but there's four guys they're going after from Elon. John Allison says $20,500,000 for football, basketball should be pocket change for an institution that has a $14.5 billion endowment.

This comment's come in, I mean, the show's on fire. Jeremy Wilson asked the question, how much of this mess, and I think the word mess is appropriate. Good word. How much of this mess is tied to Carla Williams, and how much of this mess should be put at the feet of President Jim Ryan? Well, they both are responsible for this to some degree because they're the leaders of the school and the program. And again, they don't communicate that much with media, at least sports media. They don't have press conferences.

They don't even put out press releases as to what they're thinking or what they're trying to do to resolve things. Even the multimillion-dollar gift last week, there was no comment from either one of those two in the release. Shocking there wasn't. I was shocked by that. I think most of us were. It was the deputy athletic director who...

And Lo Davis. Yeah. And, I mean, where's the leadership? There's got to be some leadership in this. And I know that they're working behind the scenes to try to tackle the problems, and they don't want to share what they're doing with the rest of us. But again, I think they owe something to the fan base

to at least acknowledge that they're trying to do something other than just throw money on the wall and see what happens. James Watson's got a great question. This is a UVA graduate, a guy who believes Origin Blue. Gentlemen, who would be the one to make the decision to adjust the admissions? We all pitch the arguments that Notre Dame, Duke, and Stanford, I will add Michigan to the list. They work with high-achieving academic student-athletes

with admissions guidelines. Is UVA the only major conference school that's kind of resistant to academic admissions changes for its revenue sports? Well, it's the Board of Visitors, I would think. I think they would have to put their stamp of approval on any such kind of thing. And again, I don't think football fans are asking them to dumb down the academics at Virginia.

I don't think they're asking them to do anything to devalue the diploma. I think they're just trying to make it a little more equitable for these guys to be able to compete in their own conference against schools that have just as good or in some cases better academic reputations

than Virginia does. I mean, you're referencing Duke there, aren't you? Yeah. You're referencing Stanford. Yeah, and Cal. And even Carolina, some people may scoff at that, but their academic rating is pretty high up there. A hundred percent. It's pretty high up there. 100%. So, you know, people that just jump to the assumption,

well, we don't want a bunch of dumb jocks coming in here ruining our diplomas or dragging down our reputation. That's not what anybody wants. Even the most rabid football fan doesn't, that's not the aim of all this. It's just to try to make things a little more fair and a little easier for these guys to get into school. Once they get in, they've got to do the work like anybody else. And it's not saying take dummies to get into the program. It's just to be more fair with the hours thing. I mean, you can't ask somebody to come in.

Even Tony Elliott said morally he can't ask somebody to come in and expect them to do 60 credit hours of work in one year. And it's not fair but other schools have figured out ways to where they I think from what I've been told anyway to where

that's not the case they've made it a little easier for those guys to survive. I mean, and another thing that is just being completely lost by the folks that are making the argument, the dumb jock argument, is these football players and basketball players, hell, I'm even seeing it with, play a lot of squash over at the Borset with the squash players. These guys are working another – they're working a job that students – that normal students aren't. Being a part of these teams is hours every day in the season.

In the football and basketball. In the offseason. In the offseason, yeah. In the football and men's basketball team, I mean, this is a year-round job. Like they're traveling. They're working out. And on top of being students. I mean, to say that these are nothing but dumb jocks is just a mischaracterization of what is actually happening.

Oh, no question. I mean, if you talk to these kids, if you sit down and have a conversation with them, you realize that they're not like that at all. These are very intelligent kids. Their day is micro... Driven kids. Incredibly driven and motivated. Right.

Their day is so micromanaged in time slots and organized versus the average student that may have two hours of class every day and a couple hours of study and the rest of the time playing xbox doing some partying or doing whatever we used to do when we were in college yeah i mean hans montana on your twitter account bill belichick's vision for the north carolina football program would position the tar heels as a premier pipeline to the national football league multiple folks are highlighting that unc is conversating, courting, dating Bill Bilicek right now.

That, we don't know where it's going to go. The concern by some is his age, but he's got a secession plan with his son. Yeah, which is a pretty intelligent plan. That was a brilliant plan. I mean, I knew about that before the story even broke because one of the main Carolina Beat writers is a good friend of mine, and he told me about this three or four days before it became newsworthy. And he told me then that at least three people on their,

I don't know if it's the Board of Visitors, but it's the equivalent to the Board of Visitors, were very, very much interested in bringing Belichick aboard. Belichick's plan, the pipeline plan, was brilliantly outlined. If you know the people in that coaching tribe as al grow used to call it i'm not the best surprised by that because those guys were incredibly detailed on everything but i mean belichick came up his dad was one of the Naval Academy guys, and they were very close to George Welsh and that whole operation, and certainly under the Parcells thumbprint.

And Al Groh used to give me incredible insight into how Parcells ran his organization, and it passed down into all those people in his coaching tree. So I'm not a bit surprised how detailed and thought out Belichick's plan was. Those guys don't do any of those guys don't go on vacation without having a detailed plan on what they're going to do. Rob Neal watching the program. His James Madison football team seems to have it figured out. How?

Liberty has it figured out. Liberty's playing in a bowl. They've played in five or six straight bowls. Virginia Tech in a bowl. Liberty in a bowl. JMU in a bowl. Rob Neal says, I would say most players who are going to start for a P4 program have a base level of intellect to understand schemes and strategy that 99% of us

could never pick up in a three-day period like them. I'll hire a kid who can work hard and get a C all day if the effort is there. They might not be 4.0 students at UVA, but give a kid a chance to be a C student, which is darn impressive. I say this all the time. You give me a guy on my team or a resume that comes across my desk for our company that is an athlete that played a team sport at a college level, and I take that athlete that played a team sport at a college level over a student that they don't get beat down so easy. If they fail, they get back up and go after it again even harder. There it is. And I think... The 3-7-4-0 kid probably hasn't failed much in his or her life.

Yeah. But the college athletes failed every day. And I believe that sports teaches you things that nothing else in life can. And I think that's why you see a lot of people who are successful in running multi-million dollar or billion dollar corporations. A lot of them have athletic backgrounds because they've learned those lessons. And they know how to overcome adversity and how to stay motivated and driven. And I think that's one thing. That's a huge benefit that sports can give you that not much else can.

Bob Shotta, it hurts to write this, he says, but we should try and aspire to be as good as Duke in football. I agree, and it hurts me to say it. Al Grob, again, I keep going back to Al Grobe, who's a lot wiser than most people ever gave him credit for, but he told Virginia back when the ACC expanded that time with adding a lot of the Big East teams, that he tried to tell Virginia at that point that look we're behind and now that you've expanded the conference we're even further behind

and if we don't do something we're one misstep away from being Duke now Duke then was not Duke now no David Cutcliffe got Duke to where it was going. Yeah, and they changed some things for Cutcliffe. They did, yeah. I know because I know one of the former Duke coaches very well, and he's told me some things. What did he leave as the OC of Tennessee, right? He was former's OC with the Volunteers.

And had been head coach at Ole Miss. Yeah, brilliant man. Yeah, and, um yeah one of the best offensive minds in the business and um but anyway yeah you know duke duke then was the doormat of the acc they couldn't get out of their own way um they they've done they've probably transformed their program more than anybody in the ACC over the years. And it shows. I mean, look at them now. They've been in bowls for I don't know how many years in a row.

I think they had maybe one year where they didn't go. go, but Virginia should aspire to be as good as Duke right now in football. And right now they're not. Duke Blue Devils, 9-3 overall, 5-3 in ACC play this season. And they just had a coaching change. They just had a coaching change. They're second in like four years or something like that. Chad Wood, any word on the Cam Robinson rumors that are circulating? I've heard the rumors, but I don't, again, we're not privy.

We don't get an opportunity to talk to these kids. You want to let them know what the rumors are? The rumors are that transfer portal Cam Robinson. Yeah. The rumors are that transfer portal Cam Robinson. Yeah, I'm sure that, again, tampering in college football is at an all-time high. And there are street agents out there and people whispering in your ears. And other players talking to you from other schools. So I'm sure there's going to be massive temptations there. And for him, I don't know that it'll be about money now

because Virginia has the money in its war chest that if it's all about money, they can say a cam will match any offer that anybody else makes you. But sometimes it's not all about money. It's about wanting to go somewhere where you can win. And, you know, that's another challenge that Tony Elliott and his staff are facing right now. Is money going to be enough to keep some of these guys in the fold, or are they going to want to go somewhere

where they feel like they have a chance to go to a bowl game? You know, that's one of the bottom lines. An hour flies by. Hour and five minutes in right here. If you're just tuning into the program, this is from the Roanoke Times this morning. The Virginia Tech Athletic Department is going to max the revenue sharing payment I guess I would say to student athletes this coming academic

year you're allowed the cap for revenue sharing with student athletes is twenty million five hundred thousand dollars and its athletic director has now said we're gonna max that payment out and we're gonna give twenty million five hundred thousand to football men's, and women's basketball in very large majority. This is significant news from Blacksburg. The athletic director also said that they are building the war chest now for the following academic year with the idea of having $20.5 million plus, because it's a 4% increase, the cap every year, on hand to pay athletes to suit up for Virginia Tech. This puts a significant pressure and a target on Virginia.

Its athletic director, hell, the president of UVA, has got a target for this. Hootie Ratcliffe, the 1120 marker of the program some commentary, some closing thoughts anything else you want to get out there? Well, it's going to be interesting to see how Virginia reacts to all this and how they do things going forward they've got more money now than they've ever had they've got incredible facilities. in the portal that are grad students or FCS and Ivy League talent and is that

what Virginia is is destined to be as the home of players who of that ilk. And if it is, can you compete in the ACC with that talent base? I mean, if that's what Virginia football becomes, Virginia football should not be in the ACC. Well, yeah, because you won't be able to compete in the ACC. You will never be able to compete. I mean, you can compete, but you won't be able to compete in the ACC. You will never be able to compete. I mean, you can compete, but you won't win. I think it's as

simple as that. I mean, that's a CAA roster. When Carla came in and Tony came in and they both agreed that their goal was to make Virginia the best football program in the country

and that they believed that you could win at a high level and keep the academics where they are without any concessions of any kind, I just shook my head because I think that's the utopian dream, but I don't think it's possible. I mean, you know, prove me wrong. I haven't seen it work anywhere else, and people say, well, Notre Dame does. Well, I'm not so sure that that's the case. And Virginia's not Notre Dame. If Notre Dame can do it, they're probably the only ones that can do it, and they still haven't proven they can do it. They haven't won a national title since 1988. Notre Dame's got the NBC contract.

Yeah, they have a lot of things going for it that Virginia can only dream of. Yeah, and they're sold out stadium every week, and they're a national brand and that sort of thing. They're in a league of their own in that respect. The best comparison is Duke. Yeah. I mean, Duke is in the conference. They're a state away. They've been an afterthought in football.

They've got stringent academic standards. Football was an afterthought for Duke. And then finally the wealthy alumni said, we need to turn this around. They got an offensive wizard. The head coach they have now, didn't UVA have on a short list at one time? Well, the previous guy. The previous head coach, head coach well it came down to him and Tony Elliott right apparently that's what we were told anyway Duke is the barometer I can't believe I'm saying this man Duke is the barometer for football yeah it's it's just and uh you know I'm very it was laughable 15 years ago

I used to cover Duke before I came here And so I know what I know all the ins and outs of Duke And George Wells used to hate to go to Duke Because it was such a dismal atmosphere for football I mean Duke crowds back then were like Virginia crowds were before George. They just came to party, and then they would leave, and like George said, they read poetry

over the PA system before the game and at halftime, and they used to have a track around their football field inside the stadium and I mean it was the it was Duke football was a joke they had a wooden press box seated about 30 people and I mean it was it was awful and look at them now you can turn things around if you want to. And you get the main alumni, you get the board of visitors, you get the president, you get all the right people behind your program, and you want to do things to make your football team successful. That's what Virginia has to prove is that they really, truly want to make this football program successful.

And, you know, why not? I mean, the motto at Virginia has been we want excellence for everything that we put our brand on. So why not do it for football? You really don't have to cheapen your education or your diploma to make football successful here. You just don't have to do that. Well said. Jerry Ratcliffe, jerryratcliffe.com, the publisher and president of jerryratcliffe.com,

the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Since 2013, the Duke football team has had one, two, only four losing seasons since 2013. And in that period of time, they've been to the Chick-fil-A Bowl, the Sun Bowl, the Pinstripe Bowl, the Quicklane Bowl, the Independence Bowl, the Military Bowl, and the Birmingham Bowl. They have been to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bowl games since 2013. They have a 10-win season in that stretch. They've had three coaches, Cutcliffe, Mike Elko, and now Manny Diaz. And currently they're ready for another bowl game.

This football team, I cannot believe I'm saying this, is the barometer for Virginia athletics. They've had three coaches in four years. Three coaches in four years, yeah. Cutcliffe, Elko, and Diaz. Yeah. And still win. And Virginia has had the same coach for three years and has the worst record of any of the power conferences over that three year period of time. And no coaching changes were made. And half the roster

is empty. And half the roster is empty. Yeah. And half the stadium is empty. Yes, exactly. I mean, I just don't understand what's going on here. I could spend two hours with this man. He's an A-plus person, Jerry Ratcliffe. Judah Wickauer, A-plus person behind the camera, the director and producer of the program. We've dubbed him the glue guy of the show.

We encourage you to visit jRackliff.com. I was on it this morning over a cup of coffee and my honey nut Cheerios. JerryRackliff.com. Thank you kindly for watching the program. So long everybody. Hour and 11 minutes. Thank you.