No word yet on whether Justin Fuente has yet interviewed with Baylor, though again, the expectation is that this does happen. Sources from within the VT program are less confident than they were last night about the Hokies' likelihood of retaining Fuente, though they still put the odds at better than 50/50 that he remains head Hokie.
SicEmSports, our Baylor affiliate, had him on its initial hotboard as soon as Bears coach Matt Rhule departed for the NFL. Here was what Editor Kevin Lonnquist wrote:
Virginia Tech
Career Record: 59-43
Age: 43
Salary: $4.0 million
Why it works: A proven track record with head coaching stops at Memphis and with a P5 school in Virginia Tech. Fuente has a history of working with QBs because he played the position in college and made that his specialty as a college coach. That could put Baylor in a better position to recruit QBs. His tenure in Blacksburg has been solid. The Hokies have been to the postseason in each of his first four seasons. Virginia Tech also played for an ACC title in 2015. Plus, this would be an opportunity for the Oklahoma native to get closer to home.
Why it doesn’t: Perhaps the expectations to replace legendary Frank Beamer were too high. Fuente hasn't dominated like some have come to expect. The question would be is if he could really win enough recruiting battles to have this program playing for Big 12 championships. After the 10-win season in 2015, the Hokies have basically been a .500 program.
Obviously there are some good thoughts in there (and an item or two I may dispute). The point remains the same: Fuente has been one of Baylor AD Mack Rhoads's top targets from the jump.
I would say there's a bit of a similarity between the programs (though not in the way you might think) in terms of how they fit into the college football world. Virginia Tech is a onetime power that seems to be still trying to find its way in an era where the in-state program can't hoover up all the top talent and develop it. The more national nature of recruiting has dropped Virginia Tech down below the elite tier.
Meanwhile Baylor has
never been in that elite tier (or at least not for more than a year or two, and certainly not while obeying all federal laws as it relates to reporting heinous crimes committed by its players). However, the Baylor administration badly wants to break into it, and with some big-money donors, might be willing to spend to get there.
Both programs are a step below the top tier of CFB now, both want to get into it (in VT's case, back into it). Both see Fuente as the coach who can take them there, for what it's worth.
Meanwhile, sources around the state have reached out to let me know that there is a head coach in the state who believes he'll be the front-runner to take over the Hokies should Fuente leave: Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze. Obviously, he has some pretty abhorrent behavior in
his past, too (nothing on the scale of Baylor's previous coaches of course), so the Hokies would have to make the decision about whether winning is worth making that sort of deal with the devil, to a large extent.
I want to be clear: those sources are
on Freeze's end, not on VT's, and I've as-yet been unable to evaluate how reciprocal the interest would be, or whether it's mostly Freeze being hopeful about his candidacy should the position open.
More to come as news develops.
