Virginia Tech baseball coach Pete Hughes leaving for Oklahoma head job.

[amszete]

People watch college baseball.

While I see where you are going - that's not the point of this thread. We have an AD that treats every other sport besides football like a piece of doodie...

 

[VTscores]

Apparently, Oklahoma offered $350k....$200k more than what he was getting paid at VT. And Hughes told Weaver his mind was already made up. Sounds like VT didn't stand a chance of keeping him.

Oklahoma sent Hughes family to Norman in Toby Keith's personal jet?!?!?

VT obviously doesn't have the same fan support for baseball, but I bet if we strung together more than one successful season the fans would come. Weaver never gives the non-revenue sports enough time to succeed to gain the fan support.

It may well have been beyond his control, but I see part of his job as anticipating that if we have a successful coach, his compensation needs to go up.

I'm a believer that if we are having success in a sport, we should invest in it. So that would mean investing in football, basketball, baseball, track, and wrestling.

I'd like to see a national championship in a team sport, and the way to get there is to build on success, not failing to anticipate your program coaching staff getting raided after a successful season. Weaver's job is "selling the dream". He seems to have been slipping lately.

We need a top notch university president who cares about academics and sports, and we need an athletic director who can attract and retain successful coaches. I suppose you have to give Weaver some credit for getting Pete Hughes to begin with, but I would have liked to have seen him stay a few more years. We were just starting to see the fruits of his success.

 

[VTscores]

Here's a good article:

Pete Hughes leaving Virginia Tech Hokies for Oklahoma Sooners - ESPN

Mason named Virginia Tech head baseball coach

After reading these, I feel a bit better about Weaver's choice to replace Hughes with Patrick Mason. I think he was a key to VT's success over the past couple of years. Hughes got them this far, but Mason does seem to be positioned well to help them continue that success.

 

[ACC_HOKIES]

Weaver has successfully killed Women's basketball, Men's basketball, and now baseball, all in the last couple years. What's next, Jim?

How Tech fans continue to defend this guy is beyond me

Atta way to find that top talent, Jimmy.

To add to that list, Weaver definitely messed up the Weiss/ Soccer situation. To their credit, they were quick to address the NCAA issues, but they neglected to address the future progress of the team, IMO. We're damn lucky Kevin Dresser fell into our laps too. Quality coaching at this level isn't often going to be hanging around the local high school because of family.

I think its about saving money and trying to continue the success by changing as little as possible. That would make sense if it happened sometimes rather than every time. Sometimes its just more appropriate to invest more to push ahead or reinvent. I think the whole athletic department is kind of running out the clock, making as few waves as possible, until a new President appoints a new AD to hire a new football coach, and then go from there.

 

[hokiegrad]

Here's a good article:

Pete Hughes leaving Virginia Tech Hokies for Oklahoma Sooners - ESPN

Mason named Virginia Tech head baseball coach

After reading these, I feel a bit better about Weaver's choice to replace Hughes with Patrick Mason. I think he was a key to VT's success over the past couple of years. Hughes got them this far, but Mason does seem to be positioned well to help them continue that success.

I'm not really against Weaver hiring Mason, but I am upset that Weaver can't find a way to retain good coaches not named Beamer. The fact that Hughes was so quick to jump on the Oklahoma offer without even giving Weaver a chance to match offers or anything... Where there is smoke there is usually fire.

I thought this was a pretty well-written piece: A Hughes Loss For Hokieball - Gobbler Country

 

[hokiecat]

I'm not really against Weaver hiring Mason, but I am upset that Weaver can't find a way to retain good coaches not named Beamer. The fact that Hughes was so quick to jump on the Oklahoma offer without even giving Weaver a chance to match offers or anything... Where there is smoke there is usually fire.

I thought this was a pretty well-written piece: A Hughes Loss For Hokieball - Gobbler Country

Very good article. The Johnson hiring, in hindsight, looks like a terrible move so far. I am hoping the Mason hiring is not that bad. The constant lack of a nationwide search is disconcerting. It makes me wonder if Weaver is up for the full rigors of his job.

 

[rockhead44]

The SEC would have brought the cash we need to retain the good coaches.

 

[mrjhokie]

The SEC would have brought the cash we need to retain the good coaches.

And Weaver still wouldn't spend it on a coach.

Weaver didn't keep Beamer here either. In fact, "His Cheapness" nearly ran even Beamer off, and that's saying something. Its probably the only time Steger has stepped in. But more than anything, Beamer's rigid loyalty to VT is what kept Beamer at VT. That same loyalty that made him hang with Stiney as OC for so long.

We can only hope that our future President and AD will have more of a commitment to sports. Pinching pennies on coaches is the best way to assure failure in college athletics in this day and age, and that's what Weaver's been all about.