The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Timeline Of Last Twelve Months For UVA Athletics; Football Sub .500 Record, Loses To VA Tech Again

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Timeline Of Last Twelve Months For UVA Athletics Football Sub .500 Record, Loses To VA Tech Again Worst Record In Power Football Over Last 3 Years National Champion Coach Tony Bennett Retires Basketball Fails To Make NCAA Tournament UVA Orders Fans It Will Pay More For Hoops Seats National Champ Coach Brian O’Connor Quits UVA UVA Baseball Fails To Make NCAA Tournament AD Carla Williams Gets Extension, More Money 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.

Thank you. 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 show that showcases and features the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie-Rackliffe. His website, jerryrackliffe.com, the go-to platform for anything UVA related. And boy oh boy do we have a show for you today. We're gonna offer the timeline of the last 12 months

for the Wahoo fan base, for UVA students, for UVA faculty, for UVA alumni, for those that bleed orange and blue. And it has been a tumultuous ride. To say it's a roller coaster ride is an absolute understatement. I feel like I'm on Alp and Geiss or the Big Bad Wolf or the Lot Ness Monster and Williamsburg, Virginia at Busch Gardens as a 12-year-old yet again. We have the following things that have transpired, guys, at the University of Virginia over the

last 12 months and I will relay them to Hootie here in a mirror. I mean, I think we should probably do it right now. Football finishes with a sub 500 record for yet another year, another loss to Virginia Tech and over the last three years, Virginia football, ladies and gentlemen, it has the worst record of any power football team over the last three years.

You have national champion coach Tony Bennett retiring just a couple of weeks before the season starts. The basketball team fails to make the NCAA tournament. UVA's athletic department has ordered fans, instructed fans, suggested to fans, I don't care the verb you want to do, use, that they will pay more for tickets at the John Paul Jones Arena and the namesake of licensing fees.

The men's lacrosse team finishes with a sub-500 record. Brian O'Connor quits UVA and heads to Mississippi State. The baseball team fails to make the NCAA tournament the postseason. College World Series and Carla Williams, ladies and gentlemen, gets a clandestine backroom behind the scenes, contract extension and more money. All that is happening while the president of the University of Virginia Jim Ryan is in a

crossfire of significant proportions. Those storylines and more on the Tuesday edition of the Jerry and Jerry show as we highlight Judah Wickower behind the camera, the director and producer, my friend Studio Camera and Two Shot, as we welcome Hoodie Rackliff to the program. Goodness gracious, Hoodie. Where do we begin? That's a good question. I'm not really sure.

You asked me to try to put that in some kind of perspective, historically, and again, prior to my getting here in 1982 there may have been some firestorms of this nature because the Virginia's athletic program for the most part had not been very successful in the majority of sports other than men's basketball, but I can't think of any specific time period, particularly one short time period such as this, that they've had so many disasters, if you will, piggybacking each other out. It would kind of be hard to duplicate that even if you tried but it's been it's tough to be a Virginia fan. It really is. I mean it's always been tough I think because so much heartbreak but when it

continues to compile like this it, it's really rough. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. Put them in the feed as we are a therapeutic sounding board for Wahoo fans across the country here on a Tuesday afternoon in Charlottesville that is still shell shocked with Brian O'Connor quitting Virginia baseball and a program that he has helmed for a generation plus to head to Mississippi State and there's no denying Stark Vegas, Starkville, Mississippi State is one of the pinnacle professions in college baseball.

Still, Brian O'Connor, when you walk on water and you take a few loaves of bread and a few fishes and you feed about eight or 10,000 people at the dish, you think he's almost family. Let's talk O'Connor. You've been all over this report. What happened with Brian O'Connor leaving, quitting, hitting the road to Mississippi State?

I think it's still unclear in some respects, and it would be nice to be able to talk to him or somebody close to him, and we're trying. But there seems to be two camps out there, and they're widely divided in their theories on what happened. I've talked to both sides. Some believe that it was a calculated move by him to, I don't know, enhance his career elsewhere. That he believes that the chasm between the ACC and SEC is huge and will never be narrowed and that the ACC may eventually fall apart and he's looking out for himself. There's others that believe that he was driven away because he didn't get the things he felt like he needed. I've been told by some people, again on both sides, that one, that they rallied to get him what he needed. Others say, well, they rallied too late, and he felt like, do

I have to do this? Do I have to threaten to leave every time I want something for my program? and that a lot of the fundraising was left up to him. It's very cloudy right now on exactly where to point fingers, and both sides are pointing at each other. Chris Graham wrote and found out that Mississippi State flew a plane up here in late April and to Richmond for two or three hours and then flew back. We don't know if that was, we assume that that was a meeting between O'Connor and maybe the A.D AD from Starkville. If that's the case, then maybe he was planning on leaving or maybe they planted a seed in

his head. Usually this sort of thing is initiated by agents. But others are saying, well, then why would he leave here? He had everything he wanted pretty much. Paid a lot of money here. Paid well. Was it 1.4? Yeah. 1,400,000 Brian O'Connor paid.

And again, we don't know what Mississippi State is offering him. That hasn't come out. It probably won't come out until later in the week after he's introduced Thursday at their stadium down there. He had one of the top ten budgets in the country for baseball, something that Mississippi State previously did not have. I think they were ranked number nine in the SEC in terms of baseball program spending.

Some of this has to do with the house settlement spending and how much is going to be given to various programs. We've heard that baseball would get 5% of that here, which is a pretty good number. But yet then again, we talked to him just a couple weeks ago. And he was not only denying that he was interested in leaving or going to Mississippi State or anywhere else. And why would he want to?

Because you can develop players and get the College Royals Series here on a fairly consistent basis, which he has done seven appearances in Omaha, which is mind blowing if you stop and think about it. And I remember him distinctively telling us, we didn't know this. I think Marty Hutloft brought it up that from MBC 29 that that O'Connor's son and the Virginia Tech baseball coach's son are on the same team at Miller School and a lot of people didn't know that and and

O'Connor was talking about how he and the Virginia Tech coach are really close. They go way back even though they're now rivals, but they're still good friends. And that they were even discussing that the Tech coaches son live with the O'Connors next year. So that doesn't sound to me like a coach planning on going somewhere, but it's it's gonna be fascinating when all this unravels and hopefully that it will and we'll have more answers. Jeremy Wilson is watching in Eastern Tennessee. He says, anger in the fan base is an absolute understatement. Mark Coleman, where are you watching Mark? absolute understatement. Mark Coleman, where are you watching Mark? He says this, Mark Coleman, it would be nice if the athletic director took questions from

the media instead of hiding in her office. We'll get to Mark Coleman, I would love to know where you are from. We have Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Southwestern Virginia, Charlottesville, Crozet, Richmond, Northern Virginia, and the panhandle of Florida watching the show right now. Brian O'Connor I've known for years. I told the story yesterday in the I Love Seville show. He takes over a baseball program. He was the pitching coach at Notre Dame. He takes over Dennis Womack baseball program that was pitiful.

We're talking when I was working for you at the Daily Progress, still a student at the University of Virginia, a stringer working for $30 a story plus some mileage. The baseball team was so bad that when Brian O'Connor was named the head coach of the baseball program, there was a press conference. Your team, your sports department at the Daily Progress, he was the sports editor. We were busy covering a lot of stuff.

It was the spring. You sent me to the press conference, O'Connor's first time in Charlottesville. I'm at Davenport Field when the press box was literally a shack on stilts falling down. A little wooden shack. A wooden shack. I remember that press box. Brian O'Connor is there. The late, great Mike Colley is there. Yep. Jeff White from the Richmond Times dispatch is there. And little old me working for $30 a story was there. And we were covering the hiring of Brian O'Connor. And that's it.

That's amazing. That's the only people who were there. Media wise. And Brian O'Connor then was what? Early 30s? 32? 31? 33? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he was like turning into a man. Yeah. His first head coaching job here. And I asked him this question. Biggest rival for Virginia. He wasn't sure. He said, I'll figure it out though. I'm here to work. And then he turns this team into this dynasty and is legitimately one of the best best if not the best coach in college

baseball. The wins and records justify it. He's a man that you know extremely well, I know fairly well. I take him at his word. About a month and change ago on the Jerry and Jerry show as you were walking into the studio you said I spoke to Brian O'Connor on the phone and he said to you and this is Brian O'Connor a man of his word that he's not leaving anywhere. He's committed to Virginia. All this stuff is noise. I'm staying here at Virginia.

I take Coach O'Connor out of his word there. It's hard not to. I mean, he said, and we know this. We've documented this in the past. He says, dang, every year somebody in the SEC gets fired and I'm automatically the number one target, but I'm not interested in leaving here. So again, you have to take him at his word

and he's always been square with me and everybody else that I know of. But it just doesn't make sense that somebody is just going to magically overnight change their mind and decide to go. Either he had to have had this as something in the back of his head that wouldn't go away and he just was fighting it or he was open to it and kept it very quiet. We don't know. Normally, and this is when I knew he was gone because normally it's been my experience over the years that if somebody is rumored to be leaving and you contact them by phone or text or whatever and ask them to give you a few minutes, because

they always, excuse me, they always do. And if they do not respond, then that means they've been told by the other institution to keep things quiet. And that's usually a bad sign for the school that the coach is leaving. And so I knew then that he was probably gone. And we've talked to some people who, some upper echelon people at UVA, not just in the athletic department, but in overall, and they were devastated at the news that he was leaving. They knew he was thinking about leaving and they tried a lot of last 11th hour fundraising and things, and apparently were successful in doing so,

and had the money to resolve every issue that O'Connor had had. But it was too late, and too late in the process, and I don't know if it had been done earlier, it would have changed his mind. We don't know that because had been done earlier, it would have changed his mind. We don't know that because he hasn't spoken about it and the athletic department has only issued a best wishes, thank you for your service kind of statement. No press conference by either and I don't know that the people of Mississippi

State will even broach that subject. I mean, it's not of their interest to do so. So who knows if we'll ever get a clear answer on this. Mark Coleman's watching in Lynchburg. Thank you, Mark, for watching the program. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. we will relay them live on air. Mark Brown is watching the program. Mark Brown let us know where you are watching the show sir. He says when are we going to get rid of Carla Williams? Which coach is next? The women's swimming coach? It has always been the thought that the powers that be do not want a successful athletic program. I hope the

board fires the president and changes the entire athletic department. UVA sounds over, UVA is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, but cannot support its sports teams. I wish I could hate UVA sports, but I cannot. Carla Williams makes me extremely frustrated and the words extremely frustrated were not the words Mark Brown used. I'm going to paraphrase for Mark Brown for the sake of this talk show. The fan base is angry and they're taking a lot of their fury out on Carla Williams because she's at the head of the department. Is that fair?

Well, it has to be fair because the buck has to stop somewhere and she's even if she's not responsible for him leaving it's still she's the head of the department and people expect those people in those positions to try to ward off these sort of things. You've had two Hall of Fame coaches leave under your watch, plus arguably the most important sport in the university has failed miserably over the past three years. And that was the reason she got the job in the first place over some of the other candidates who most people felt like were more hireable for the situation because she touted her experience with Georgia football

and that they needed somebody to come in here and make football a winner to make football a difference maker, and it hasn't been. And that falls squarely at her feet. I don't know if you can pin everything on her, but certainly, again, she's the leader of the department, and somebody has to be responsible, and usually it's the head of the department.

Mark Brown's watching the program in Prince George, Virginia. He says he absolutely loves the Jerry and Jerry show. We thank you for that, Mark. Michael Murphy is watching the program in Baltimore, Maryland. He says, doubtful we will ever know what happened. Coach O'Connor will have a better team in Starkville, though.

He will be able to draw players that could not get into UVA. How many players will follow Brian O'Connor to Mississippi State? Great questions from Michael Murphy. Yeah, great observation. So much I'll throw it to you of the Virginia baseball roster already in the transfer portal Hootie. Yeah there was seven as of 10 o'clock last night. I haven't checked this morning to see if there are any others but most of those guys were the heart of the team that that was supposed to return. Some of these guys will probably be drafted.

Others can sign pretty good lucrative NIL deals elsewhere. I imagine O'Connor would welcome some of those, particularly the two freshman pitchers, and perhaps Henry Ford Ford who was a sophomore If he's not drafted Out to Starkville and again, we don't know what Mississippi State has offered him their program was not as lucrative in terms of

Money set aside to run the program and coaching salaries and all that. But again, we're hearing that's going to change. I would imagine it would. I'm certainly not going to go there and take a pay cut. The other coach was making that they fired in late April about the same time that the plane flight was tracked from Starkville to Richmond.

I think it was making 1.3 something. But O'Connor I'm sure will get a raise. I imagine that there are some of the heavy hitters and I don't know a lot about Mississippi State Other than that John Grisham was a graduate from there undergrad there Speaking of John Grisham, I follow you on Twitter. Someone asked you did Grisham take part in this your answer They wanted to know if Grisham had taken part in trying to lure him to Starkville, but from what I was told that he actually contributed to helping keep O'Connor here.

I can't see John Grisham helping. That's all hearsay. That's all hearsay. I mean, Grisham was a part of big-time donations to Davenport. Yes, he was. In fact, Grisham's son played for O'Connor. Yeah. In fact, John Grisham once told me, he said, everybody thinks that I'm the one that gave most of the money for Disharoon and all this other stuff.

But he said, actually, Phil Wendell of ACAC fame should be getting kudos for that, that he was the spearhead of that movement. Phil Wendell, guys, sold World Strides, which is a travel experience field trip company for schools. He exited that business, made a boatload of money, took that capital into creating the ACAC gym brand. It's a club. It's an elevated gym and club. He's got locations everywhere. Phil Wendell courtside at Virginia basketball. Phil Wendell very much a mover and shaker. So much, we've had so many questions for you. Stephanie Wells-Rhodes is watching in Keswick.

She says this marks the end of an era. Kenneth Knuckles is watching. Good morning Virginia gentlemen to you and I. Brian O'Connor taking the coaching staff, most of the coaching staff with him to the Southeastern Conference in Mississippi State here. The Carla Williams, I mean nastiness is all over the feed. I mean it is all over the feed. When you're the athletic director and you lose your basketball coach that's a national champion, your baseball, that's a national champion, your baseball coach, that's a national champion, when your men's lacrosse team finishes with a sub-500 record and misses the postseason, your baseball team misses the postseason, your basketball team misses the postseason,

and your football program has the worst record of any of the power conferences over the last three years, at the same time, you're basically strong-arming your fan base, asking them for more money for seats at the John Paul Jones Arena. Jeez, Louise Hootie. It's a firestorm for sure. And the fact that they gave her a significant raise and a contract extension in secrecy, hoping that it wouldn't get out, that was a bad look.

Terrible look. Yes. It's a disingenuous look. Absolutely. And I can't I can't blame the fan base for being upset about it. At most schools, not just in the south and the Atlantic Coast Conference. You wouldn't get that much lenience by fans and supporters. You know, I had somebody call me yesterday and said,

this shouldn't be, Carla shouldn't be bashed for this. But, you know, again, she's the head of the department and somebody has to answer for all this and you just don't let a Hall of Fame coach walk out the door and again we don't know how many of the rumors are true that that they were only going to fund 20 scholarships under the new rule which allows you to fund 34. I was told yesterday that, yes, we raised enough money to fund at least 30. And again, we don't know when that funding came in.

Was it the 11th hour drive to satisfy him to stay? Or was that money given earlier? We don't know that. He had some other gripes. I was told that O'Connor didn't, by one side, that O'Connor didn't have any problems with Carla and told by another faction that there was an incredible strain between the two. So at least from the O'Connor equation. So again I wish we

could sit down and talk to both parties and get a little bit clearer picture of what actually happened behind the scenes. Until then, we're going to have to listen to both sides argue that, you know, he was right or she was right or whatever. Michael Plecker watched in the program. He's a local standout realtor for Yes Realty Partners in Charlestown, Central Virginia. He was a standout catcher, one of the finest backstops in Shenandoah Valley history, played for the New York Mets and

their farm system. He says this, my team manager of my high school baseball team was heavily involved in getting Brian O'Connor to come to Mississippi State. Bo McGinnis, who went to Mississippi State, was the team manager in the early 1990s. Bo has been a Major League Baseball agent for years and is the only one to represent both Cy Young Award winners in the same year. Bo actively recruited or linked Brian O'Connor to Mississippi State. He's also the president of the Mississippi State University Alumni Association. So Michael Plecker who knows baseball inside and out, offering some insight

there. William McChesney on McIntyre Road, the SEC has been bringing truckloads of money through the NIL. He is not surprised that this happened. He also says to lose two Hall of Fame coaches in one year is generally a goodbye to the athletic director. Just so much to unpack here. We haven't even talked about who does Virginia baseball target for a hire to replace Brian O'Connor. I think we should segue there.

Yeah, well, yeah, going back to some of those replies, Mississippi State was incredibly, I don't know what the right word is, it was a brilliant move on their part to take a gamble and see if they could persuade him to come to Starkville. Especially considering some of the other Southeastern conference teams with also boatloads of money failed at doing this. Yeah, more glamorous programs. I mean, I know Mississippi State has a great brand, but LSU, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida.

Way more noteworthy or significant or sexy brands in college athletics. Yeah, Mississippi State is sub-tier in the SEC from a brand equity standpoint. Yeah, I know they have an incredibly passionate fan base. They own most of the NCAA attendance records. Again, I don't know a lot about the school or Starkville. Never been there.

But yeah, why Mississippi State and not the others? And again, you could have gone to Texas A&M last year, if I recall, LSU a couple years earlier than that. Why Mississippi State? Why now? That's the million dollar question. I mean just because they came after him doesn't mean he had to go. Everybody else came after him too. Is it the fact that there's a huge difference between the SEC and ACC and coaches in the ACC are getting worried about it and people are worrying about the future of the ACC? I think SEC schools getting a hundred

million dollars, ACC schools getting fifty million dollars, that's you're not going to make up that kind of ground in a lifetime probably unless something drastically happens. I don't know there's there's a lot of things behind closed doors that we don't know we may never know but moving on to your other question, who will they get? It's a good question. I've seen probably at least 20 names out there of potential candidates and one that was brought to my attention is the guy at Washington. I think it's Eddie Smith. I wrote in my column a couple of days ago

who was on Brian O'Connor's staff quite some time ago. And he's been on various staffs at Notre Dame, Virginia. I think, I don't know if it's LSU or somewhere else. Utah Valley State University. Yeah, he most recently turned that program completely around and was hired at Washington this past season. This is his first season, or was his first season at Washington. I don't know how they did this past year,

but certainly he's somebody that I would think they would look at. And again, I don't know a lot about him. I know he was a good guy when he was here. Virginia, Santa Clara, Notre Dame, Tulane, and LSU, you're exactly right, Hoodie. Your memory is sharp. Eddie Smith of Olympia, Washington, formerly the head coach of Utah Valley, and he turned the Wolverines into a baseball pallor at Utah Valley University.

Right. Young guy. This is the tough part about... And you want a young guy if you're starting over. 100%. Because you want hopefully the same plank or runway that O'Connor had. Yes. Just give you the optics here. Tony Bennett when he retires from basketball is in the pinnacle of the profession on a short list of coaches that is like from active coaches.

Rick Pitino, Bill Self, Mark Few on that short list of active coaches. I mean, the best of the best. I like the Ryan Odom hire, but you bring Ryan Odom in and it doesn't have the pizzazz of a Tony Bennett. Brian O'Connor leaves, he's on the short list of some of the best coaches in college baseball, literally the best. You bring in an Eddie Smith, he doesn't have the pizzazz of a Brian O'Connor.

It seems from a perception standpoint, an optic standpoint, fan base standpoint, that it's a step down with a hire. Well, yeah, Hall of Fame coaches aren't going to just walk in the door. And you're not going to buy them either. Fame coaches aren't going to just walk in the door and you're not going to buy them either. They're not going to, most of them are going to leave where they are and come to another

school unless something's wrong. So clearly, you know, the new guys are going to have to prove themselves and went over the fan base and convince people that they can win. And whoever takes over this baseball program has got a yeoman's assignment ahead of them because the players are leaving. We've never had to see a roster completely rebuilt, or mostly rebuilt in a season here like we have in basketball the last two or three years.

So it'll be interesting to see how the new coach can reassemble a team. I don't know if they can convince any of these guys to come back into the program out of the portal or if they're all gone. I've been told that there will be more than just seven. And they were going to lose some guys to the draft anyway. So it's going to be a challenge for the new coach to rebuild the team, rebuild the program. And certainly it's a national brand program and it's got so much going for it. But it's not easy totally rebuilding a team.

It's really tough and he'll have to bring a symbol of coaching staff too. A lot of people would have liked to have seen Kevin McMullen, the hitting coach and long time associate head coach take over but all the coaches left with O'Connor which makes me wonder If there wasn't some incredible dissatisfaction with the situation

This is what Mike Ploeker said except for Drew Dickinson the pitching coach who had come under Struggle fire over the past two years. Yeah Ploekers back in your point up here and plekker's in the in the baseball circles. He's back in your point up What tells me there was tension between the athletic director and the coach is that coach Mac and Kirby chose to leave? For staying coach Mac taking on the head coach's job here in Charlottesville. That would have made sense He had the he had to have had in Charlottesville, that would have made sense. He had to have had the opportunity to stay here, but said no. You would think so. It wouldn't be due diligence if you hadn't approached him about the possibilities, if

they even had the opportunity to do so. It may have happened so quickly that they didn't have that opportunity. But these guys were out of here in a hurry. Roomba started servicing only a couple of days before that. So like Thursday, Friday? Yeah, I think it was Thursday. And the guy from Division I Baseball is is one that broke the story, that he was the leading candidate for the job. And that guy was very well plugged into college baseball.

He probably got that from somebody in Starkville or associated with that program out there. But cuz I don't think there were any leaks here. There was obviously had been, the subject had been broached a couple weeks earlier, that as we said, and he shot, O'Connor shot those down, but there was so much going on behind the scenes and again unless somebody decides to talk we're not gonna know for sure.

Comments coming in faster than I could keep up with. Here's another one for Jerry Radcliffe on the Jerry and Jerry show. Viewers and listeners let us know your thoughts we'll relay them live on air. This comes from Mr. Knuckles who says this. The question that has not been asked, who is available for the athletic director position out there? Should a move happen with Carla Williams? I'll use that comment from Kenneth Knuckles as a springboard into a topic

that the viewers and listeners should follow. The Board of Visitors is meeting right about now. The Board of Visitors is young and appointed. The temperature on the Board of Visitors suggests maybe a consideration of letting the President, Jim Ryan, go. So much so that there was a letter written yesterday by 15 or 20 retired faculty and department heads,

one of them, Craig Littlepage. This letter released to us, to media, was in support of Jim Ryan, and this letter suggested that the temperature suggests that President Ryan may be let go. Furthermore, there's an associate of Jim Ryan's, an underlink of Jim Ryan's, a lieutenant of Jim Ryan's, who has started, what did he call it yesterday,

where he was looking for signatures to preserve Jim Ryan's job. It was a call to action that was floating around. They, an underlink of Jim Ryan, did basically a GoFundMe or a crowd source signature campaign to support a sign on letter. They called it a sign on letter to support Jim Ryan. And in this sign on letter, the suggestion was made that the Board of Visitors is considering

letting Jim Ryan go. So in one, in a three made that the Board of Visitors is considering letting Jim Ryan go. So in a three or four-day period of time, this is insanity here, you have retired faculty and deans and an athletic director, Craig Littlepage, signing a letter and sending it to the media in support of Jim Ryan. You have lieutenants of Jim Ryan creating a sign-on letter for active students, former students, alumni, faculty to sign in support of Jim Ryan. Youngkins Board of Visitors meeting with the scuttlebutt,

maybe Ryan will get let go. The question I have for you, and this is a top pay grade question here. If Jim, if Ryan does in fact get let go here, And this is a top pay grade question here. Might be above my pay grade. If Ryan does in fact get let go here, what is the trickle down effect it has with someone like Carla Williams? Well, listening to the pulse beat some time ago, a couple months ago, when all this came to light that she had been given an extension behind closed doors and they hoped it wouldn't get out.

Chris Graham found out about it through a Freedom of Information Act request. Had he not done that, I don't know if we would have ever found out, because they weren't going to announce it, that she had gotten an extension and a significant pay raise. There were strong rumors then, and a couple of them coming from Board of Visitors members, that board of visitors members that the board was not happy with her to begin with and were opposed to extending her contract which was supposed to be up last month. This happened back in December I guess when she got the secret extension. There were a scuttlebutt, again, stemming from at least

one board of members, board of visitors member, maybe two, I think two, that insisted that if Ryan goes, then she goes because he was the one that gave her the extension which was opposed by most of the Board of Visitors. So if he goes, perhaps her protection is bulletproof. It's gonna be interesting to see how that evolves today. We'll be listing. I don't know if you'll have news about that on one of your shows later today or not. We're trying to follow it closely. Stacy Baker Patty, I'm getting to your comment.

First, I'm gonna go to Roderick Mullins, watching in Clintwood, Virginia. With all of the recent events, Roderick says, I'm embarrassed to be a Wahoo. The events of O'Connor leaving, Tony Bennett retiring, the football team's pathetic performance over the last three years and then to add insult to injury, the university wants more money for tickets. Until things change, I won't be getting tickets for UVA events in the future and will spend my money, spend my four and a half,

four and a half trip to Charlottesville to visit family and friends instead of experiencing this dog and pony show in person. It's as bad as Tennessee was before all the changes were made in Knoxville. I am so frustrated with all of this and the lack of transparency by UVA and all of this. It's absolutely embarrassing and shameful. The lack of transparency is what is most of the fuddling to me, Hootie. It's like why would you clandestine backroom deal Carla Williams extension and pay raise? And why would you, why would they not let us know that there were general manager of teams?

Why do we find out in a Ryan Odom press conference in nondescript fashion that there were general managers of the football and basketball program? Like that's how we found out. It was just mentioned casually. Casually. I don't know it's usually not the act but the cover-up that is the worst part of things that we found out not only politically but in sports and in business and it's a good question. And there is no transparency.

With Virginia's athletic club. They're taking the fan base for granted. Yeah, it would seem that way. You would feel like you're being jerked around if you're a fan. I've gotten tons of emails and direct messages and texts and stuff and just people walking up to me in grocery stores and on the streets saying that they're fed up,

they're not gonna renew their tickets in various sports. It's gonna be interesting. It was mostly football and basketball. Now I'm hearing the same from some baseball fans. People are only gonna take so much and they're tired of giving and giving and then things happen and there's no explanation why. And you just can't jerk a fan base around like that without, again, being transparent and at least giving your side of the

story whether you're right or you're wrong. And, you know, athletic directors are fired every day around the country. It's not like that it's an untouchable position by any stretch of the imagination. And they've been driven off here before. One in particular comes to mind. But again, it's got to be incredibly frustrating to be a Virginia fan, particularly right now. This comment comes in from St Stacy Baker Patty. How many players are going to Mississippi State with Oak? At least 20 UVA players in Portal and a D commit, but some have a no contact associated with their Portal

entry, which usually suggests they know where they are going. Oh yeah, if it's a no, if it's an NC it's stuck on there then they know where they're going. I say McNeely had a no contact. Yeah. And the Scuttlebutt has two million smackaroos for McNeely to Louisville. Yeah I wouldn't think that most of these guys would have any problem going somewhere else because they're high quality baseball players and particularly some of them are prized recruits. I don't know how many will go with O'Connor to Mississippi State. It depends on who he would want, how much room he has on the roster down there. I saw that even a

Mississippi State guy entered the portal last night. So that's to be determined how many may flee Charlottesville for Starkville and how many he may try to entice to come down there and how much room he has on his roster at Mississippi State and and how many of these guys will be looking for a paycheck may go to the highest bidder or the best situation for them so it we'll have to wait and see how that irons out. This scuttlebutt is circulating the athletic department and the program. Virginia athletics is so committed to turning football around, one number that was floated to me was 85% of the

NIL of the money that could be allocated will go to football, 85% because they're so committed to making football a winner. Have you heard similar rumor mill, similar scuttlebutt and what do you make if so of the strategy of allocating such a large percentage to football? Well, I haven't heard that number. I do know that there's a significant amount invested in football, because they have to turn that around. For an athletic department that supposedly has some shortcomings financially in various areas, the only way to make up that revenue is

through football. Basketball is not going to do it. There's not another sport at the university that makes money. They all lose. Every other program loses money, including baseball. You said at one time on the Jerry and Jerry show, football was losing as much as a million dollars a game. Well, yeah, just on ticket sales alone. Not to mention everything else, but they've got to find a way to turn football around and get fannies in the seats.

The only way to do that is to win and win consistently. to win and win consistently. Even Bronco couldn't fill the stands and he has done the best since the early days of Al Groh and being consistent with the football program. And Carla Williams, is this a fair comment? Jeff Kamrath, Virginia baseball alum, I'm getting your comment next. Lovewin Jeff offers comments. The man knows baseball inside him. He really knows baseball. He's got comments for us here in a matter of moments. Is it safe to say, is it, okay, is it an accurate statement for me to say

that Carla Williams was part of the debacle that led Bronco Mendenhall out of Charlottesville? Well, if you listen to the people behind the scenes, she was because she was forcing him to fire his defensive coordinator and He at first apparently had agreed to do so There was even talk about hiring Anthony Poindexter as the defensive coordinator and

Overnight Bronco just Overnight, Bronco just didn't have the stomach to do it. The coaches on his staff were more close-knit than most coaching staffs are because of their religion. Mormon faith. Yeah, those people are like family, not just employees. And he couldn't do it, so he fell on the sword. And his distaste, his excuse was he was tired of football and he was burned out. Well, that didn't last long.

Yeah, he's coaching right now. He's already been at two different football programs since he left here three years ago. So that smells a little fishy to me. And again, you have to go, you have to know people behind the scenes to be able to be told what's actually going on. And that, and according to those people, you know, there should, there could have been a better solution. I still think that if they had been smart, they would have just gotten Bronco to become – he was the defensive coordinator and head coach when he got here.

He tried to simplify his job until he could get the program turned around, which he did. Why not just have him go back to be the defacto defensive coordinator as well and have the other guy go back to coaching the secondary like he was beforehand. That way nobody gets fired. You solve the issue and you can continue what they had gone four or five straight years with no less than a 500 record, which people would have probably killed for the last three years. But you know, I'm told absolutely she had something to do with that. Jeff Kamrath, I mean this guy wore the uniform, played for Bright O'Connor.

He says, Mississippi State will be loaded. Oak gets to cherry pick the best of two rosters here. Yeah, great point. And again, I would imagine the AD at Mississippi State, who I'm told is getting a little heat because of their football program, which seems to be a contagious. I would imagine he promised O'Connor pretty much anything O'Connor wanted to get him to come to Starkville.

O'Connor's got the leverage. You've already got a high brand program with incredible support and you throw money on that, which I'm sure some of the heavy hitters down there, and baseball's a big sport in Mississippi State. I would imagine he's walking into a dream world in terms of what's available to him to build continue to build that program. Viewers and listeners the comments Jeff is right Jeff is 100% right 100% right

this comment comes in from Eastern Tennessee football can can be a winner only if you have the right coaching staff. We have not consistently been competitive in football since the Welsh early grow era. He's 100% right on that. James Madison is watching the program. James, were you watching the show? Sorry, I see you have a picture of yourself at Scott Stadium.

Were you watching James? He says, if UVA treated their football fans better, they would fill the seats. We haven't missed a game in 46 years and do everything. And UVA does everything they can to screw longtime fans. I highlighted the story of my parents' middle class uprigging my brother and I had with my wonderful parents in Williamsburg, Virginia. My dad was an

accountant and business owner and my mom was his front office, essentially his secretary. And goodness gracious, they worked 70, 80 hours a week to give my brother and I everything they had. And one of my dad's favorite pastimes because it was outside tax season, it was in the fall, was to go up to Scott Stadium to watch football games. And we had season tickets, and we sat with the same people all the time. And I remember when they got the letter in the mail that you have to give us more money to keep your seats. I remember how disappointed my parents were when my brother

and I were kids, and they were reading this letter at our house. My mom, who just loves being around my brother and I, and of course my dad, she went to the games to see her friends and to tailgate and to wear the UVA clothes and the earrings and just be around People that she got to know over years of sitting in the same seats my dad my brother and I were die-hards We'd sit there through the thick and thin and we love football. We love sports We love being together and to get that letter in the mail I vividly remember my parents reading it and I vividly remember the feeling of betrayal

my brother and I felt while watching my parents read this letter because There wasn't any more money in our family budget for the seats Yeah, and then at that point we had to give them up and that created a lot of hurt for them created a lot of hurt in the football community. It's still a stain on the football program and the athletic department because I know that John Oliver went to the VAF and told them that they were making a mistake by doing that and they did it anyway. I don't know how many people, it's countless people that have contacted me throughout the years when I was in

the newspaper business and since then, who go back to that very same letter, that same feeling of betrayal, their loyalty was dismissed. And there was a lot of hurt and a lot of those people the majority of those people have never been back to a football game since then and won't and those are the die-hard fans those are yeah they're every day rain or shine win or lose this This is like a middle class blue collar fans. Exactly. And there's a fear that they're going to do the same thing in basketball.

And I'm starting to get those same kind of contacts from people out in fandom that say they can't afford that, to do that, and they're gonna give up their seats. And so I hate to see that for Ryan Edam, but I'm sure there's probably a waiting list for people to buy tickets. I assume there still is, there used to be. After last year who

knows but you know are we gonna see that happen to JPJ in the future particularly if they struggle a little bit until they get things back in line and and they shouldn't I'm and's not throwing shade on Ryan Odom. I think he's done an incredible job building this roster. But the rest of the ACC hadn't sat on its hands. They're trying to do the very same thing. It's not going to be easy. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts.

I mean, I think about my upbringing as a Southern Baptist who went to Catholic school and was raised in a Jewish neighborhood. Ryan Odom is going into the lion's den as if he was Daniel. I mean, the heat is already up, and the man hasn't even coached his first game. Jeff Kamraff, his comments. People need to ask why a guy who built the program

has 22 years invested, raised his family here, still has a son in a local high school here, 917 WIDS, could have his number retired here, was top 10 in compensation, would leave. Hint, it's not because he doesn't love the fans, donors, or alumni. Again, this is what Jeff Kamrath, who played for Coach O'Connor, is saying.

Brian O'Connor built this program. Taylor made the program for himself, and his team, and his ideology. It was a perfect program. 22 years invested, raised his family and his kids here, still has his child in a local high school, playing for Billy Wagner, the Hall of Fame coach at Miller.

917 victories. Could have his number retired here. Top 10 in college baseball and compensation per year, Brian O'Connor chose to leave. Second active Division I coach in the country, in baseball. Hall of Famer, those kind of guys just don't walk out the door unless something is not kosher. That's why I tend to listen to some of the people who claim that he wasn't getting what he felt like he needed or didn't feel like he was going to get funded

to continue to compete nationally. There's still a little bit of a cloud as to if people did raise the money to fund 30 scholarships, when was the money raised? Was it a last-ditch effort to try to keep him here? If that's the case, then it was too late. And he had to be asking himself, you know, every time I need something for my program, am I going to have to threaten to leave to get it? Do I have to raise the money myself? Which is bogus. It is bogus and it shouldn't come down to that and that's not what a coach should have to do especially one who has one of the

premier programs in college baseball and Jeff is exactly right. It doesn't make any sense. If you brought in some right. It doesn't make any sense if you brought in some neutral party that doesn't know anything about it and slapped up his credentials and they couldn't make any sense of it why he would leave. I just don't buy that he left because Mississippi State is a more, more, um, glamorous place to go. I just, I'm just not buying that. Brian O'Connor walks on water in Charlottesville.

He heads to Mississippi State where he doesn't nearly have the brand equity. He's going to face crossfire at Mississippi State. Oh yeah. He would never face in Charlottesville. No, I mean, he gets, he's gotten a criticism this year. He got criticism last year for some moves he made in the, in the college world series and even the year before that in the college world series and with some pitching decisions, et cetera.

Well, no coach is perfect. Any coach will tell you that, that they're going to make mistakes like everybody else. But it was never under the magnifying glass here, like they will be down there. That coach who had taken them to the national championship in 2021 is no longer there because the heat, believe me, and I've been all over the SEC, intimately all over the SEC all my life. And the temperature of the fan base and SEC schools and up here are... It's night and day.

Night and day, and that's not even close to it. The passion, those people, they breathe and sleep sports, and they do not put up with losing. And you'll get fired in a heartbeat if you can't produce at an SEC school. And so, yeah, he's going to be under the magnifying glass big time in Starkville as opposed to here. No question about it. Chad Woods watching in Crozet. He ran, he was one of the key members in Steve Isaac's single wing attack. Brian Leskynick in that backfield played for Steve Isaacs

in the Jefferson District. Chad Wood says, giving all the baseball money and technology to football, Tony Elliott and Carla Williams better do well this fall. You simply do not let Brian O'Connor walk. It's unforgivable. I will highlight this. Olivia Branch, we're going to you again.

You're on deck with your comments. I will highlight what Chad Wood is saying. The pressure on Tony Elliott and the pressure on Ryan Odom and the pressure on Carla Williams is significantly intensified with everything that's happened in the last 12 months. Tony Elliott's ratcheted up level of pressure just the seat got even hotter now with Brian O'Connor leaving because the fan base is

angry and an angry fan base is not going to be patient if the team struggles out of the gate. I don't know a question about it and and they shouldn't struggle out of the gate. We've talked about it on this show the last several weeks, that they have no excuses to not win in football now. Their excuse before was we can't retain the talent that we have and we can't acquire the talent that we need because of a lack of NIL funds. Well, that's no longer an excuse. of a lack of NIL funds. Well that's no

longer an excuse. They have plenty of NIL funds. There's just tremendous emphasis on improving the football program. They brought in over 30 transfer portal kids from all over the place. They have depth at every position on the field. They had two basically starting quarterback caliber players. Two million dollar quarterbacks. They got depth on the offensive line. They've got a more suitable schedule than they've had in the last couple of years, although again I complain about it.

It should be a little easier. I still think they're going to have an awful hard time winning a non-conference game at NC State early in the season. If they don't win at least six games to get into a ball game, there's no question that he'll be gone. And a lot of people aren't going to be satisfied with six wins. I mean for me it's six wins and one of those wins better be Virginia Tech.

For me if you lose to Virginia Tech you better be posting seven or eight wins. And they're never going to have a better time to break the current streak than this November when they've got tech up here. Tech's program- Is down. Yeah, it shouldn't be. They don't have an upper hand on Virginia right now. This is not Frank Beamer's Virginia Tech. No, and the pressure's on Brent Pryde down there as well.

But this is their best chance since, was it, what year was it? Not the offensive line, the old lineman pass. To the offensive, the backward pass to the offensive tackle from 14 or 15 yards from the goal line on fourth down. Maybe the dumbest call I've ever seen in my career on any level of football. Do we mention Robert and I?

Robert and I was the author of that ridiculous play call. Who flamed out in Raleigh. Flamed out in Raleigh. Who flamed out in Raleigh. Flamed out in Raleigh. That still boggles my mind. I'm still sitting there looking at that place saying what in the hell

is he thinking? We laugh because it's so ridiculous. They should have beaten Tech that year and that would have given them the 2019 win. And whatever year that was, I guess it was Broncos last year here, four years ago. But yeah, one of the wins should be over Virginia Tech. And they can't keep losing to those guys and

maintain a winning program here. Olivia Branch, the queen of Keswick, Virginia. Everything old is new again. I got priced out of my tickets and seats many years ago after being a dedicated dual sports ticket holder with parking. Yeah, Olivia's right. And again, I get so many of those messages from people out there. Football, a really good friend of mine who's had season tickets in football and basketball for the last 40 years tickets in football and basketball for the last 40 years has decided after all this turmoil that he's not going to he has not renewed his football or basketball

tickets he was going to keep his baseball tickets but now I wonder if he'll even do that probably not so I use him as a good finger on the pulse kind of thing to measure how the fan base is thinking because he's a very loyal fan and it just I can usually take the temperature of the fan base by reading his thoughts on what he feels and how he reacts to things because he's very, has a tremendous common sense. But just like Olivia, I hear so many of those stories over and over and over again. Roderick Mullinson'll close on this. He shares

on Jerry Radcliffe's page news that just broke from the Virginia Athletic Department. Donna Mahan, which I don't think anyone knows this name except insiders, is stepping away as CFO of Virginia Athletics Foundation. The Virginia Athletics Foundation, the Virginia Athletics Foundation announced moments ago the departure of long-time chief financial officer Donna Mahan, a CPA, and Kyle Ray as the incoming CFO effective in July. So the Virginia Athletics Foundation has just announced the departure of their CFO.

She was there for 17 years with the Virginia Athletics Foundation. And Roderick suggests maybe this is the first shoe to drop with UVA potentially cleaning house. Who knows? But that announcement ‑‑ I really have no inside knowledge of that. Right. I have no idea. Neither do I. That announcement literally just hit VirginiaSports.com. Hootie, we have gone. I don't think any other show or podcast gives you this, guys. An hour and nearly 20 minutes straight

without stopping for commercial or, in my case, having to go to the bathroom. Your website, the traffic is off the charts right now. Goodness gracious. I think the most challenging aspect of your job right now is deciphering which piece of content to work on next. Because your hopper is overflowing. There are stories that I've been trying to get to for weeks now that I haven't had time to write because of all the stuff that keeps popping up out of nowhere and and it probably will continue to be that way for a while even though I do have to

write some of these stories soon but I appreciate all the people that check out our website because our readership is off the map right now and it has been strong. It continues to be strong all the time. Sarah Williams on YouTube, I think this is the common theme that folks are publishing across all these platforms and we're live on every single social media platform possible. She says on YouTube it boils down to Carla Williams which in my opinion was a bad hire. Carla Williams is the problem here. Sarah Williams says on YouTube. I was surprised that they hired her of all the candidates they had. In fact I thought there were two other people that I thought would probably get the job. So I was very surprised when her name was announced as the new AD because again, I thought

there were two other people. One of them in particular was I, incredibly well qualified for this job and would have been a natural. But again, I had no say in who was hired. But ADs are under a lot of fire. As they should be. Yeah, as they should be. Especially in this era. If you're a president, a CEO of a company and things go haywire or go sideways, guess whose head rolls?

It's not an underling, it's the CEO. The old tenet, the buck stop here, that's a definition of what it is to be an AD in today's college athletics. She makes more than a million dollars a year and she's got performance-based bonuses that can add another quarter million to her compensation. She should be under fire, folks, because the athletic department is not performing up to standards and I think we all know that. Jerry Radcliffe, the namesake of Jerry Rackliff.com,

Jerry Rackliff.com. I follow him on Twitter. I'm on his website and his Twitter account probably half a dozen times a day. And that is absolutely realistic. Probably more now with all this tumultual news cycle going on, all this roller coaster news cycle going on. You never roller coaster news cycle going on. You never know when news is going to break. Geez Louise dude. We're popping stuff on there.

The man doesn't sleep over here. You're right about that. The man doesn't sleep. The Saison night owl is an understatement. Judah Wittkower is the man that doesn't sleep behind the camera. Judah Wittkower. He doesn't need any sleep. He's a wizard. Those guys know it. They never sleep. Judah the Wizard Wittkower, absolutely. My name is Jerry Miller. This is the Jerry and Jerry Show. And the I Love Seaville Show, guys, is up in, goodness gracious, 56 minutes.

So Judah Wittkower is very discreetly giving me the evil eye right now. Thank you kindly for joining us on the program. So long everybody. I didn't know you were a Southern Caltrojan..