The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Why Is VA Tech Football Dominating Virginia?; Will The UVA Administration Fire Tony Elliott?

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Why Is VA Tech Football Dominating Virginia? Will The UVA Administration Fire Tony Elliott? UVA Board Of Visitors Meet Dec. 4 – Dec. 6 Most Apathetic State For UVA Football Ever? QB Anthony Colandrea Enters Transfer Portal 50% Of UVA Roster Has Expired Eligibility Can Hoos Rebuild Roster Thru Transfer Portal? UVA at #13 Florida, 715 PM, Wed, ESPN2 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. Thank you kindly for joining us. My name is Jerry Miller. A pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network on one of our favorite shows we do each week because it's a time I get to sit across from my friend, Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie Radcliffe, the best Boston guy I could ever have. Now a colleague of sorts. I follow his lead on this show. He's a wealth of knowledge, and frankly speaking, his sensibility and level-headedness, I think, is in a lot of ways a lighthouse or North Star for much of the fan base.

Look, I'm like you. I'm frustrated. I am flummoxed and I am flabbergasted. Virginia is losers of what, 23 of the last 25 ballgames to the Virginia Tech Hokies. And folks, I watched that ballgame in Blacksburg just like you did on Saturday evening. It was not as close as the final score would indicate it. That was a blowout, ladies and gentlemen. A third-string quarterback that looked not like a third-string quarterback. Instead, he looked like, frankly, Michael Vick at times against Virginia's defense. An offensive line that could not protect the quarterback, and frankly,

some guys on both sides of the ball in all three phases of the game that I don't think showed up with the passion to play. Certainly not against your arch rival, but we'll ask all this, including how does Virginia rebuild its roster with half of it gone, exhausted eligibility through the transfer portal? We'll talk about that with Hootie. We'll talk the unfortunate news of Anthony Calandria. I got to ask a very pointed question. Does Tony Elliott get fired? So much more to cover on the show. Judah Wittkower, studio camera. And then if you could, feature the star, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, my friend. 23 of 25 losses to the Virginia Tech Hokies.

I'll start with an open-ended question for you. Where would you like to begin, sir? That's a quarter century of frustration. and it just doesn't get any better. I don't know what it is, but it just seems like, and it's always seemed like to me, and I've seen it from both sides of the rivalry, that that game means much more to Virginia Tech than it does to Virginia. And I know that Tony Elliott tried to stress that to his players all week and has, has several other coaches throughout that quarter of a century.

And I mean, Bronco even had a clock year round that ticked down to the day, but for some reason it just doesn't resonate, and I don't know why. Virginia Tech dominated the game, as I said, not as close as the final score indicated. Its quarterback, I mean, that kid could move. He could throw the ball. He had Moxie. He was talking smack on the Virginia sidelines. In a lot of ways, looked like the best player of the field for much of the ball game. Where do you want to begin?

Do you want to talk Tony Musket playing his final game? Do you want to talk Anthony Calandria suddenly benched before the game, maybe leading to his transfer or his exodus from this Virginia football team where he's been the face in a lot of ways the last two years? Do we want to talk Des Kitchings and his play calling where a lot of fan base is saying it's about as vanilla as it gets? Do we want to talk the concern of what this is going to do for National Signing Day?

I mean, the show is yours, my friend. We'll go in all those directions. But I guess we should start off with Tony Musket. You know, you've got to salute him because he came to play. He came to play. He played his butt off. He left it all out on the field. You have to admire him and everything he stands for.

He gave it everything he had. And how could you ask for any more than that? We had started hearing stuff about Calandria earlier in the day and that something was off. We weren't sure what. It was hard to get any confirmation until maybe a couple hours before game time that that he was actually on we had heard that he had quit the team that he wasn't on the trip all sorts of stuff was flying around out there we weren't able to nail it down but we knew something

was up and we found out that musket would be starting. Apparently that decision was made last Sunday night or Monday morning, and obviously Tony Elliott didn't want to tip his hand by letting Tech know that he had made a quarterback change, but everybody else in the program knew it, and they kept it. It was a well-kept secret, and kudos to them for doing so. But I think that probably, I don't know for sure because we haven't been able to talk to anybody much about it since Calandria announced it. I don't know if he actually announced it,

but he's let it be known that he's going to enter the transfer portal. So I'm assuming that was the straw that broke the camel's back, and it's a shame because, you know, I am assuming that if he had started that game and played, that he would still be in the program. But maybe that's assuming too much. I'm not sure. Calandria transfers Shox Wahoo Nation.

Is this a direct result of being benched for the last game of the season? I think so. I mean, we don't know that for sure, but all arrows point to that. I don't know why else he would be frustrated enough to leave. There's some whispers that he got into it with the staff after the SMU game. I don't know if that's just hearsay or if it's fact. But clearly a lot of frustration all around that final week of the season. And frankly, I think had he played, I think they probably would have played a little better.

The game might have been a little closer, even though Virginia Tech was, it was never really a game, I don't think. It was never a game. No. Virginia came out flat in the first half. I think had he played, they would have had a better chance to keep it close. I still don't think they would have won the game, but I think they might have made it a little more competitive, but I can see where he was frustrated. You know, he started 11 games. He beat a couple of good teams and put them in position to beat a couple of others, and all of a sudden you're benched and you're in the most important game of the year.

I'll offer this perspective. Calandria has not played well of late. No, he hasn't. He has not taken care of the ball of late. He has struggled. He faced some adversity with losing his job for the last game of the season, and his answer to facing said adversity was quitting and leaving the program. Is that a reflection of today's athlete?

Is that a reflection of Calandria's character? And can do some that say that maybe the program's better off with the kid who's going to quit the program and go for greener pastures and say the grass is greener on the other side should not be leading the team. Any truth or legitimacy to any of those comments? Well, yeah, I think so. I mean, I think it is an indication of today's athlete that if things aren't going their way, it's easy to tuck and run and go somewhere else. And I'm sure he'll find a home.

Some people are saying that he won't be picked up by a power-four team. I don't necessarily buy into that. I don't get why people would say that. I mean, this kid, if he starts taking care of the football a little bit more, is a legitimate quarterback in college football. Yeah. And, you know, he had the numbers a year ago, and his numbers this year, other than the interceptions,

his completion percentages should be a little higher, no question about it. But you've got to – You didn't have an offensive line. Yeah, that's what I was about to lead into is you've got to understand that this guy hasn't had hardly any games this season where he could drop back like a regular quarterback without feeling pressure and I don't care how good your quarterback is if he he's getting pummeled every time he drops back to throw the football he's not going to be as accurate he's to throw interceptions, and he's going to make some bad decisions

because you're getting your brains beaten out. Anthony Calandria, no longer a Virginia football player, and the quarterback position, a vital position, is in a precarious position. Virginia is out of 330, I think 131 FBS schools, Virginia is next to last in sacks allowed. Florida State's the only team worse in the country. That's a hell of a stat. Here's another stat for you. I saw this at, what's the man's name?

Danny. Danny Neckle. Danny Neckle. Danny Neckle on Twitter. Great guy to follow. Great research, yeah. Yeah, great statistician. Give the man some props here. Tony Elliott in the last three seasons has the least amount of victories of any of the coaches in the power conferences.

That is a damning statistic. UVA, another Danny Nichols statistic. UVA outscored 102 to 16 in the first half in their final five games. And how about this statistic right here? This takes it back to, I mentioned this to my dad and he just shook his head. He's a 72 graduate of the University of Virginia. Tony Elliott is the first UVA coach to not have a winning record in any of his first three seasons since Dick Beswick in 1976, 1977, and 1978. Virginia the only team in the ACC with a losing

record in each of the past three seasons, Hootie. Yeah, I knew that about the coaches because I've covered all those guys. George Welsh took a 1-9 or 1-10 team and went 6-5 his second year and had him in a bowl game by the third year of Virginia's first bowl game ever in 1984. It actually took him longer to get into a bowl game, and reasonably so, than it did Al Groh, Mike London, both second year, and Bronco Mendenhall, after that disastrous start, bowl game, second year in the military bowl. So, yeah, he's the only Virginia coach since Bestwick

who hasn't had his team in a bowl game by the third season. Hans Montana on Twitter on your channel. And, Hans, let us know where you're watching. It says the Calandria transfer reeks or smells of agent representative involvement. Where are you watching the show, Hans? Send us a tweet. I'll mention it on air. Then I'm going to get to, frankly, a standout former Virginia football player,

Dennis Haley, watching the program that has some commentary to offer, a linebacker of talented proportions. Dennis Haley was terrific. Terrific linebacker. Agent representative involvement with Calandria, or do you chalk it up to the benching? Where do you chalk it up to? I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some of that going on.

You never know who's in a player's ear these days. There's a lot of street agents out there. Sometimes it's the family that gets involved. Sometimes it's the high school coach that gets involved on behalf of the player. Sometimes it's just flat-out tampering. There's a lot of that going on in the country these days, and you hear coaches complaining about that all the time, but there's nobody really marshalling that.

The NCAA is almost powerless anymore. So there's massive tampering going on. It could be any of that or all of that. And it could just be simple frustration on Calandria's part. But I wouldn't be surprised at any of that. Michael Murphy watching on Twitter. He's watching in, is it Ocola, Florida? It's got to be a hell of a lot warmer there, Mike Murphy, than it is in downtown Charlottesville. I hope so.

17 degrees when I was walking the family German Shepherd this morning. He says, need to get Carla signed or fired now. Can't wait till May. Mike Murphy said he left Charlottesville a few months ago. He's now in sunny Florida. He loves this program. Holly Foster is in Henrico, and she says, I think Carla Williams needs to go as well. Frankly speaking, Hootie, it's all over the feed about Carla Williams. Well, there's a lot of mystery surrounding that entire scenario right now and I think that's probably why everybody is wondering what you talked about in the pre-show about people

waiting on the next shoe to drop well we're not sure what shoe is going to drop excuse me our win but we we know that our contract expires on May 31st. We know from really high sources that she has interviewed for other positions outside of the athletic department or outside of the university. We don't know where any of that stands. There's no comment coming from the athletic department or the university on any of that. If she is on her way out,

and there's a lot of fans who would like to see that happen because they've blamed the entire football situation on her um if she's still the ad and you want to make a coaching change do you trust her to make the next hire i don't i wouldn't think so because her track record hasn't been very good um there's a lot to be fixed over there. And no matter who the coach is, I mean, you could bring Nick Saban in to UVA tomorrow afternoon and present him with the same guidelines and recruiting restrictions that Tony Elliott has, and he would throw up his hands in frustration and probably leave.

If you read my column this morning, and I asked Tony Elliott point blank about this during last week's press conference about the abnormal amount of players that's going to be exiting the roster because of, one, the extra year of COVID, which everybody has, and two, the extra year of eligibility due to the shooting tragedies that only Virginia players got. They're going to lose, I think, 20 seniors and 23 grad students. That's nearly half your roster. I don't know if there will be any exodus of players entering the transfer portal or not.

There probably will be. There always is. Definitely will be. I mean, it would be a shock if there's not. Well, I mean, the 20 seniors and 23, and his column is fantastic. How do you replace that? There you go. His column is amazing.

It's called Virginia Football Recruiting is Handcuffed by Admission Rules. It's on jerryrackliff.com. 85 scholarship limit. 20 seniors and 23 graduate seniors have exhausted their eligibility. That doesn't even include Calandria, who's in the transfer portal. The team is losing half its

roster, ladies and gentlemen. And he's highlighted how difficult it is to replenish the roster through the portal. Unless you're a graduate student with the credits to transfer, you're probably not going to get scooped up in the portal by the University of Virginia. Let's go to Dennis Haley. He says, I honestly do not think that Calandria is leaving because of getting benched. There has to be more to the situation,

and conversations have been had prior to any of that with his family for sure just doesn't seem like a decision that would be made after one incident that's from dennis haley linebacker extraordinaire virginia football it's a good observation and uh we would like to know the story behind all that i don't know that we will get it anytime soon, but it would be nice to learn what facilitated all this. Comments coming in left and right today, Hootie. This is a therapy session for the orange and blue. As we've highlighted in our headlines, if you could put the headlines on screen for us, the UVA Board of Visitors is meeting Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Hootie? Yeah, and that's an you know, interesting timing. I guess it's not uncommon. But it'll be interesting to – it would be interesting to find out what's on their itinerary or agenda just to see if – I would imagine the football program has got to be something that's going to be talked about. Got to be. It's got to be.

I mean, what's the stat you offered? Home football games? Virginia's losing a million-plus dollars per home football game? Yeah, just in ticket revenue, not to mention concessions. But let's go back a minute to the admissions thing because when Tony talked about how many players he's going to be losing I asked him about the grad student thing and

he essentially has to go after grad students, grad transfers, to fill up his roster. I mean, do you realize what that size of that talent pool is? That's a needle in a haystack. And he can't get the underclassmen in because they have to make up 60 hours of credits. And it's virtually impossible to do that. And we've heard that there's a couple of them. I'm not going to name them right now, but we've heard. And I know one of these for sure doesn't have that same kind of policy

for their undergrads coming in. And their academic reputation is on par with Virginia's. One of these, for sure, doesn't have that same kind of policy for their undergrads coming in. And their academic reputation is on par with Virginia's. And he's talking ACC programs. Yeah, and another is their academic reputation is higher than Virginia's. I think folks can figure it out by that one right there. By that one right there. By that one right there. We've been told, we're trying to confirm this, but we've been told that when an undergrad comes into their program, they reset his timeline.

He doesn't have to produce 60 hours of credit work in a year or two years. He gets reset as if he's a freshman. And we've been told that, and this comes from a pretty good source, players from FCS schools that Virginia has reached out to and tried to get into the system have already been rejected by the admissions department. So you can see what Tony Elliott is up against. And that's not going to change. You get rid of Tony Elliott, the next guy is going to have the same problems unless somebody makes a philosophical change to the system because it's just not working.

Mark Brown watching on your Facebook page. Honestly, he says, UVA football needs a total overhaul. Everything top to bottom. I don't blame any player from leaving. I love UVA, but UVA either needs to honestly fix the problem or disband or dissolve football altogether. He says, with less than 25,000 people in attendance per each home football game, what is going on and who is in charge of all this?

Mark, we appreciate your frustrations. I don't think disbanding the football program is the right move in any shape or form. I am concerned about the attendance. 25,000, probably around the average for every home football game this year. The inflated numbers that are offered by the athletic department are not realistic numbers. And I think we all realize that simply by the eye test. Your friend on Twitter, the old ball coach, is that Donald Marcella? Yes. He's watching the program and he says, dang it, go to one of the academies and get a disciplined ball coach, an Army, Navy type coach.

Those are the winners, folks that are not focused on the NIL. Well, it certainly worked the last time they did it. I've heard some people say they'd like to see them go after the Army coach. Why did the Army coach come here? Munkin, I think is his name, who's done an incredible job at Army. I don't know. I mean, I don't know what his situation is up there. I know that Boo Corrigan hired him at Army and watched that entire transformation come about. And Army football's been solid ever since that guy's arrived on the scene.

Certainly it would go back to the John Oliver philosophy of hiring coaches who run a unique system or somewhat unique system that other schools have to adjust for. Just as Tony Bennett's pack line and slower-paced tempo was, Bronco's system was a little bit different than a lot of schools, and those worked. Certainly, Paul Evans showed what you can do with that when he made the transformation from Navy to Georgia Tech and had them in bowl games every year. You're not going to compete for the national championship,

but you certainly aren't going to compete for even the ACC championship under the present conditions. So, you know, something different like that could possibly work. The old ball coach makes a good point there. John Blair in Stanton. Jerry and Jerry, I think people have to be realistic about Tony Elliott and Carla Williams. John Blair says they don't control the admissions process. Ask any of your local high school coaches.

There is an enormous difference in kids that play at the Ivy League and at the FCS level compared to Power 4 kids. First, they have measurements on length, width, weight, and BMI that are much lower than P4. Second, their speed, agility, leaping, and strength workouts are significantly worse than P4. If you simply go in the portal and pick up Ivy FCS kids, you can't compete. I can coach a defensive player on leverage all day long, but if he's two steps too late to get to a kid, it really doesn't matter. I can teach a quarterback wide receiver back shoulder throws all day long, but if the wide receiver can't get a step and can't out-leap the corner, well, it's just not going to work.

Well, and that's what they're filling their roster up with in terms of the transfer portal is a lot of FCS guys and Ivy League players. And we've seen the results. And, I mean, like I said, they're handcuffed. we've seen the results. I mean, like I said, they're handcuffed, and what can you do? And if you're vying for graduate students from FBS schools, and they've been able to attract a few, you're competing NIL-wise. And I don't think that's going to be as much of a problem this year as it may have been in the past.

I've heard they've made some adjustments to the NIL for football, maybe primarily to keep what they've got. But, you know, they've got a problem. They've got to go out now and get two quarterbacks because they have one scholarship. Well, I guess they've got two incoming freshmen, high school quarterbacks that are supposed to sign tomorrow, National Signing Day,

and they have Frakes who transferred from out west. Is that New Mexico? He hasn't played in a game since 2022. And, you know, are you going to fill the team this fall with a quarterback with no experience? I mean, they're going to have to go in the portal and get at least one quarterback, if not two. And talk about the chatter of what the going rate for a quarterback is in the portal.

Well, if you're going after a serious quarterback who is a top 25 program type quarterback, it's going to cost you a minimum of a million dollars. That was the word on the, that's what an FBS head coach said last year. I don't know if the price has gone up. I would imagine the price has gone up. I mean.

Everything else has. Is Virginia going to do that? No. No, they're not going to do that. And the second level, the second tier quarterback on that, the same coaches are saying $750,000. I don't think Virginia not going to do that. And the second level, the second-tier quarterback on that, the same coaches are saying $750,000. I don't think Virginia's going to do that either. Probably not.

I mean, so, folks, you see the rock in a hard place here. Here's a very demoralizing question. I'm going to ask it anyway. From Jonathan, who's watching in Boulder, Colorado. Ask Ratcliffe this question. Fielding a football team that continues to look pitiful on television like Virginia has under Tony Elliott or dissolving the program altogether, what is better for the brand, what is better for the school? Well, I think it would be a mistake to dissolve the football program because it's a rallying point for alumni for numerous reasons. You have networking, you have just people getting together and back at the university and you know on and on and on i i think

football brings a lot to any university uh the fact that it's bad football um is a shame and it doesn't have to be that way but the university has to make a commitment to turn things around. It's not just building an operations center, which is fabulous and it's nice and it should help in the long run, but it takes more than that and a huge video scoreboard in the stadium to attract players. That helps, but

if you can't get them into school, you can't get legitimate football players into your school. You're shooting yourself in the foot. You can't compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference under those conditions. It's just not going to happen. A couple of stats we'll throw to you before we get to comments everywhere here.

Half the roster, guys, has expired or exhausted eligibility yeah and that number is going to increase because you have to um you have to imagine the athletes that are still on the roster that have eligibility some of them are going to enter the portal just like anthony calandria did so you're looking at a roster where more than half of your team is not going to be here next year. You're looking at a roster where you do not have a quarterback. You're looking at a roster where your best wide receiver likely is going to be drafted and playing on Sundays, maybe picked up as a free agent. You're looking at a roster where your best defensive player has exhausted his eligibility and Sanker, the Covenant School graduate.

You're looking at a roster that has not figured out the offensive line dilemma. You're looking at a roster that has what? Who's the tailback on the roster? Who's the tight end on the roster? Who are the starting safeties on the roster? Right? I mean, where do I begin here as someone who throws questions to a Hall of Famer and you? This is a senior-laden roster.

Have you ever seen it like this? How long have you been covering Virginia football? No, 43 years. Have you ever seen it like this? No, I have not. I don't think they've ever lost this. Well, I know they've never lost this amount of players in one thing. And it's not like you've got Deion Sanders here and you're the University of Colorado

and you can bring in 50 new players through the transfer portal. And even if you do, you know, you're rolling a dice because some schools have tried that and it hasn't panned out. Look at Florida State. They didn't replace that magnitude of players, but they brought in a ton of guys, and there's no chemistry. You've got guys coming in from all over the country that never played together, don't know your school,

don't know the players on your roster, have to learn your system on the fly, it can backfire on you. So it's worked out at Colorado, but I don't know how long they could sustain doing that year after year either. But it's a mess, and I don't know what the answer is. They could do some things philosophically

and talk to some of their competitive schools that they go up against who have made some adjustments to allow the football program to flourish. And it hasn't tarnished their academic reputations or their degrees. I don't hear their alumni complaining about it. And, you know, something's got to be done. They can't stay on this path and expect anything to be any different. It doesn't matter who your head coach is. If you handcuff a coaching staff on recruiting, that's the lifeblood of your program is recruiting.

And if you can't get the players, you're just not going to win. It's too competitive. It's not the old world football that we grew up with. It's a new time. And if you're not going to adjust, I got to go back to Joe Gibbs giving me his business card one time. I asked him for his phone number he gave me his business card and it had a dinosaur on it with a low slogan on it adjust or die which was very apropos for the dinosaurs and that's what we're looking at here uh John Allison FSU Florida University, had to make major staff changes.

Will the University of Virginia? To me, the offensive coordinator, the offensive line, and special team coaches should go based on performance. Birdwoods Bobby Shada, hire Anthony Poindexter now. Replace Carla Williams. Breathe excitement into the program now. Replace Carla Williams. Breathe excitement into the program now. Give season tickets to all of the local Pee Wee football games to get fans in the stands. When Brian O'Connor, the Virginia baseball coach, first arrived, he gave all the Little League's season tickets to baseball. That number diminished as the team's popularity got better until they couldn't give us any,

but mission accomplished. He breathed excitement into the program. How about first, Byrdwood's Bobby Shotta, with the Poindexter comment, hire Anthony Poindexter, fire Carla Williams, and give away season tickets to the Pee Wee youth football teams. Well, Anthony Poindexter didn't want to come here the last time because of some of the things we've been talking about because he knew that you can't win under those conditions. And things haven't changed.

He's not going to look at this program any differently than he did over three years ago because nothing has changed. I wondered when that question was going to come up about the offensive staff. I did some research, and I'm going to write a column about it today, about where Virginia stands nationally in every offensive category, and it's embarrassing. If this was the SEC, Tony Elliott would be justified in firing his entire offensive staff. If this was the SEC, Tony Elliott would be fired. Well, he probably would be, yeah. But, you know, we remember what happened with Bronco

when they asked him to fire his defensive coordinator, and that led to his departure. I wonder if anything like that's going on behind the scenes now with the offensive staff because the numbers don't lie. They're atrocious. And you just can't win with those kind of numbers staring you in the face. You made the comment in our pre-production meeting that a lot of times these pink slips or these firings

happen immediately as the season terminates. It's now Tuesday. You surprised that we've had, what is that, Sunday, call it 54 hours now, call it like 60 and some, almost 70 hours. Yeah, well. Since no coaching announcement or news. The only news so far is Calandria is leaving. Yeah, and that wasn't even announced.

That was not announced. That was just found out. Right. But, yeah, I mean, normally things like that would happen quickly because if you're planning on doing that, you probably have your feelers out to find out if anybody else is interested in coming here. Or if you're not going to fire your head coach, you're going to demand that some of the staff goes. And, you know, possibly that could be happening. I don't know.

But we do know there was supposed to have been a staff meeting of assistant coaches yesterday that was canceled. I don't know why. But it's really hard to find out what's going on behind closed doors over there because, I mean, again, we don't know what's going on with the AD situation. We don't know what the Board of Visitors is thinking. We don't know what Tony Elliott may be thinking in terms of possibly shaking up his staff or if he wants to keep them. We just don't know because there's no word of any kind coming out of the athletic department. I'm going to put this in as simple and straightforward terms as possible. The athletic director is interviewing for other jobs.

The head coach is on the hot seat, which is an understatement. The offensive coordinator, the special teams coach, and the offensive line coach have underperformed significantly. Half the roster has exhausted its eligibility. The starting quarterback is leaving, has left. The team has lost 23 of its last 25 games to its arch rival. The admissions department is keeping talent from coming to the program through stringent credit and academic requirements. The only way to rebuild the program and the transfer portal

is through graduate players or players tied to institutions like the Ivy League. The fan base has given up to a great degree. I followed the program. My dad went to UVA. My brother went to UVA degree. I followed the program.

My dad went to UVA. My brother went to UVA. I went to UVA. 43 years of Wahoo. I've never seen the apathy at this point. I was not alive during the Beswick years or the early Welsh years. From Welsh until now,

this is the most apathy I've ever seen. We always had, we talked about this in our pre-production meeting, we always had for the last 15 this in our pre-production meeting. We always had for the last 15 years, at least there's basketball, at least there's Tony Bennett. We're a basketball school. And that pulled us out of the doldrums of football. We don't have that anymore. Virginia basketball has got Florida Wednesday, 715, Florida's 13 in the nation in both polls. We're going to learn a hell of a lot on Ron Sanchez's basketball team

on Wednesday night, ESPN 2, and the SEC-ACC Challenge. Yeah, the Gators are, I think, 8-0. 8-0. They've dominated Florida State and Wake Forest. It's the team that Virginia beat last year in a tournament in the famous Corey Alexander incident over the referees.

Corey's never going to live that down. And Blake Buchanan scored 18 points in that game, which I guess is his career high. But, yeah, we'll learn a little bit more about Virginia basketball on Wednesday night in that SEC Challenge game. It'll be tough. The Gators are tough at home. And, again, you're taking on an SEC team,

and we know how the NIL has changed SEC basketball. Excuse me. I've been fighting a bug for two weeks now. But the Seth Greenberg mentioned it on my podcast two years ago that the SEC is totally invested in basketball to change the face of that conference's fortunes in basketball. And it's worked. They're flourishing in basketball.

And they're bringing in powerful athletic guys. Auburn, two in the nation. It's good. Both polls. Tennessee, three in the nation, both polls. Kentucky, two in the nation. It's good. Both polls. Tennessee, three in the nation, both polls. Kentucky, six in the nation. And the coaches poll. I mean, I'm looking at the top 25 here.

Good Lord, there's SEC programs everywhere in the top 25. Yeah. It used to just be Kentucky. Right. Maybe Tennessee from time to time. Right. But they, you know, in Florida had those back-to-back national championships. Or Donovan.

But, I mean, it just shows you what they've done. And Sanchez mentioned it the other night. You know, down in the Bahamas, they faced two teams that were obviously greatly enhanced by NIL and big, strong, physical, intimidating, dominating athletic basketball teams with an attitude, a nastiness. And he was talking about Day Day Ames and how he has brought that from the streets of Chicago into Virginia basketball.

And he's told Day Day, we don't want you to change. We want you to be you. And he used the term, if we could syringe some of that nastiness into the rest of the team, it would be wonderful. I can't believe I'm saying this. Day-Day Ames might be the most important player on the roster. He may be. He can get his own shot and create for others. He might be the only one who can do that.

Yeah. And believe it or not, he said, Rody has a little bit of that attitude as well. And he thinks there's a couple other players on the roster that are trying to bring that out, that attitude into play. But they're going to be up against it against Florida because Florida's going to try to physically intimidate them the way that Tennessee did and St. John's to a degree. So it's going to be a real test of not just basketball,

but just physical play. Is there ever a scenario you see the athletic director being terminated before the expiration of the contract? And the reason I ask that question, there's a national coaching search happening right now for the basketball team. And if this Virginia basketball team begins to struggle before Christmas, then that national coaching search intensifies. The football program we've already highlighted, when did the Welsh start? When did George Welsh start coaching? 82. 82. So we have 42 years since Walsh started to today. And we've highlighted this might be the most apathetic state for the football program.

Who makes these hires? That's a good question. If you don't have an AD in place or if you have an outgoing AD, I would think the Board of Visitors would have to form a selection committee and probably go to outside sources. There are companies that specialize in helping find coaches and ADs for various schools. And Virginia has gone that route a couple of times, at least employing them to gain their knowledge or assistance.

And I would expect that would probably be the route they would go if those are the circumstances. For both potentially programs? I think they're waiting on the cake to bake with the basketball value in how this team performs in the conference as opposed to games leading up to it. But, again, I think you've got to let that cake bake a little while before you start dabbling into that. But in the meantime, you certainly start looking around to see what might be available if things don't work out with Ron Sanchez.

I know a lot of people would like to see him succeed because he's such a wonderful person and a good guy. And I know the players love him. Nothing more I would want than Ron Sanchez to keep the job. And it's always great to keep continuity in your program if you can. And personally, I hope he makes it because I like Ron Sanchez a lot. But it's not up to me. John Blair, I'm curious, Hootie. We only have three committed recruits on 247 that are offensive linemen.

We're losing three offensive line starters to graduation. Do you all have any insight on what the staff is doing with regards to just getting bodies on the OL, on the offensive line? You can't put true freshmen on the field as offensive linemen. That would be unfair to those kids. Judah, one shot hoodie on that one there. Well, there's only been a couple of true freshmen that have ever started here on the offensive line. They were outstanding people like DeBrickishaw Ferguson. DeBrickishaw Ferguson, right.

Who played in the NFL for 13 years with the New York Jets. But I've never understood why they can't get an offensive line here. George Walsh, it was always his priority, and Al Grove too, for that matter, to go out and find the best offensive lineman that they could get and bring them in and build the offense around that. Because if you don't have an offensive line, it doesn't matter who you have in your backfield. If you can't protect them and you can't open holes.

The old coach at Georgia Tech, old George O'Leary, I had dinner with him one night. And he probably would have ended up being a really great coach at Notre Dame had he not had that resume issue. But he told me, he said, the first thing I do when it's time to start recruiting is I bring my staff in and he says, I want you to target the 10 or 15 best offensive linemen in the country and go after them and see if we can get any of them

because that's a priority. And it has to be. And I just don't understand why Virginia can't get offensive linemen. They used to. They've had great offensive linemen under George Welsh and Al Groh. They've had a couple of guys since then, but nothing compared to the early years. But that's got to be your first building block is to get a great offensive line. And even Tony Elliott said the other day that his goal through recruiting is to build overall team depth because it shows up late in the season

when injuries start to mount, and you don't have second-line people who can step in and get the job done. And he thought that one of the biggest gaps between Tech and UVA's programs was Tech's defensive front versus Virginia's offensive front. And that just magnifies the issues they're having with the offensive line and why they can't be more successful offensively. Mark, on your Facebook account, a question I was going to ask. Mark, this is an excellent question. Why does the University of Virginia football program not hire a general manager,

much like Stanford has done with Andrew Luck? I wouldn't be surprised if that's coming. That's a big trend in college football these days. Alabama has one. Stanford has one. Yeah. There's some ACC schools, I believe, that have general managers. And a lot of it has to do with the transfer portal and recruiting

and just overall health of your program. But I would not be surprised at all if they didn't make that move sometime in the near future. Follow-up question for you, a question that's right up your alley. Any suggestions, shortlists, a Hootie Ratcliffe shortlist for a general manager? Oh, I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. I would have to sit down and think and try to figure out what the job entails and what they're looking for. Some people take it much more seriously than others, so it depends on what they're looking for.

This comment's put in, along with DeBrickishaw, Ferguson, Morgan Moses also started as a true freshman on the offensive line. The viewers and listeners are intelligent. We appreciate these comments. People are screaming for Biscuit Hagans as a potential shortlist head coaching replacement. Bobby Bowden, what did he call him? That Dan Gamet number 18. Biscuit Hagans, I love Marcus Hagans.

Does he have the coaching experience to be a head coach? That's hard to say. I mean, he's been a wide receivers coach here and now at Penn State. I would think if I'm Virginia right now, I would either be looking for somebody who is a proven winner at either the FBS or FCS level as a head coach or somebody who has just undeniable potential to do that. And I don't know if Marcus has the experience yet to go there. I love Marcus Higgins. Me too.

I love Anthony Poindexter, but I don't know if Marcus has the experience to take on that role at this point. John Allison watching. John, where are you watching? You're making the program better. He says, how about Matt Schaub for general manager if you won't take the offensive coordinator job? I'll say this, and you know the guy better than I do. Just one man's opinion here.

Schaub is set. Shop is living a very good life. It's in the Atlanta area. And being a general manager and an offensive coordinator of a football program and a massive rebuild is a grind. And it said something to me that as the color commentator for this past season with the Virginia Sports Radio broadcast, he did not do the full schedule. No.

He did an abbreviated schedule. He had four games, I think. Yeah, right. Schaub doesn't need that. Schaub doesn't need money. No, that's for sure. If he did it, it would be because he would want to help his alma mater. But I think he would be probably excellent in that role.

Oh, he would be probably excellent in that role oh he would be he's incredibly intelligent guy and uh understands every facet of of uh of the game he might have to be brought up to speed a little bit on some of the NIL issues and things of that nature but uh certainly something he could adjust to. I think whoever made that recommendation just now, that's a spot-on choice. I think he would be terrific. John Allison.

Burwood's Bobby Shada. Some folks at the Virginia Tech game said the size and talent of the Hokies over the University of Virginia players was obvious from the stance. Duke, Army, Navy, Vandy, Georgia Tech, they do not compete in the NIL or portal much, if at all, which means it's coaching. Carla's coaching hire record is not so good, so let a committee do the hiring.

Hell, let the Long Brothers do it. They know more about football than anyone currently in Virginia. A nod in the tip of the cap to Chris and Kyle right there. Yeah, I mean, certainly they know football. There's no question about that. I would think if you don't bring in, and maybe they're looking for a new AD. I don't know. We can't get answers from anybody over there about what's going on behind the scenes

because they choose not to. But we don't know. I'm assuming that if, and they are aware that Carla Williams has interviewed for other jobs. I would assume that they have a short list of ADs. I'm sure there's been some contact with somebody if they know that she's leaving or planning to leave. And you know what's interesting about that? I don't know if that's the case know, I don't know if you bring in, if that's the case, and I don't know if it is, but if that is the case,

I would think they would bring in the AD and let him form a committee and do a coaching search. And if they're not in that position, I would assume they would, again, go to those outside firms and see who they would recommend. What's interesting about the AD hire is the AD hire would be a coveted job. Being the athletic director of the University of Virginia Athletic Department would be a coveted job. Yeah. A football head coach would not.

It's a tale of two different jobs. Yeah. I mean, certainly they had some great candidates. The last time they did the AD search with Boo Corrigan, who probably would still love to come here, would be my guess, knowing his family roots. Brian Boland was very close in that race. There was somebody else from outside that I can't remember who it was,

but there were certainly a lot of people who were interested in the job. I think maybe even Bruce Arena and maybe some other people were interested. So I'm sure there would be a long list of really good candidates because it is a good job as an AD. You have one of the top athletic programs in the entire country to manage and a lot of potential out there. I mean, I'm still a little confused as to why Virginia pushed for the bill that was passed in the state legislature last summer, spring, summer, that allowed universities to pay players,

and not much has been done with that. And I don't know if this is accurate. Somebody told me that Virginia Tech was planning on taking advantage of that situation. I don't know if Virginia is, what's in their plans about that at all, but I think there's incredible potential there if they want to exploit that legislation. I'm seeing the name Tony Bennett all over the feed, and you know what's coming after the name, Tony Bennett all over the feed, athletic director. Yeah, well, you know,'s coming after the name Tony Bennett all over the feed. Athletic director.

Yeah. Well, you know, it would be interesting because certainly he has great leadership qualities and everybody loves Tony Bennett. There's the aspect of it that, and a lot of people believe that this is something that's held the football program back, is that the last however many ADs, going back to Jim Copeland, have all had basketball backgrounds

and may not be as well versed in football as somebody with a football background. You buy that? I don't entirely buy that. I think there's probably some truth to it because it's a – but I wouldn't be opposed, I wouldn't be opposed, certainly wouldn't be opposed to Tony Bennett or somebody with a basketball background as long,

because I think they all understand that football is the driving force. But I do know that having talked to a couple of people with basketball backgrounds, that they don't have the total grasp of football that they feel like they need to have. I've had a couple of them tell me that. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the best shows we've done, one of the best most watched shows we've done without question. Some closing thoughts for Hootie Ratcliffe. I would imagine you've got a boatload of content in the pipeline here.

Yeah, I'm going to be writing tonight about the offensive statistics and how embarrassing they are. And I know that Tony Elliott said that after the Virginia Tech game that he was going to put the entire program from A to Z under magnifying glass and evaluate. We'll see what happens there. But certainly National Signing Day is tomorrow. They've got the Florida Gators tomorrow night.

Essentially, fall sports are complete, so it's all winter sports now, and we'll be focusing on all of that and whatever may develop behind the scenes. We've got feelers out

probing, trying to find out what's going on. We'll see. We'll appreciate the perspective from you, the viewer and listener. Thank you for making this program fantastic. We encourage all the viewers and listeners to visit jerryrackliff.com. I'm on his website three times a day.

First thing I did, frankly, this morning was to read the column over my coffee, over some Cinnabons with the boys and the better half. My wife made some Cinnabons with the boys and the better half. That sounds pretty good. It was vintage. My wife made some Cinnabons.

I had my phone, and I was reading jerryracliff.com and drinking my coffee. I'm coming to your house tomorrow morning. That was my breakfast this morning. I mean, because it's the newspaper now. It's Jerry Racliff on the phone. Yeah. Tell your wife I'm coming over. Okay.

Her Cinnabons are really good. Visit JerryRackliff.com for anything and everything UVA related. Judah Wittkower behind the camera, the director and producer of our fair and fine talk show. He's the glue. He's the glue man. Thank you, Judah Wittkower.

The I Love Seville Show, guys, is up at 12.30 p.m. We will follow Hootie's Twitter account and Hootie's website as what's the next shoe to drop. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long. Thank you.