If you were looking for new information about the transition of power going on in Virginia Tech athletics these days at today’s noon press conference, I’ve got some bad news for you.
People talked. Little was said.
Athletic Director Whit Babcock got things started by taking the podium and briefly read from a prepared statement that thanked everyone associated with the football program, including recently fired Brent Pry.
He did not take questions. He did not look excited. He had the body language of Marshawn Lynch, who famously once said “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
He sounded like a dead man walking. A man aware of a number of plans, but also aware that it is highly unlikely he will be part of those plans. He wasn’t speaking from the heart. He wasn’t even speaking as if he’d written the words coming out of his mouth. It was more like a man who had been told “read this to everyone to calm things down and we’ll let you stay a few extra months.”
To say it didn’t meet the expectations many had for the press conference is an understatement. I haven’t been this underwhelmed since Amazon had its last highly promoted “Prime Days” sale.
Virginia Tech seemed to be following the time-tested corporate strategy of having a press conference…for the sake of having a press conference. You don’t take questions and you don’t really say anything, but you prevent someone from complaining that you’re not forthcoming with what’s going on behind the scenes (hey, we had a press conference! What more do you want?).
In fairness, however, I don’t think Whit could say anything even if he wanted to. Gears appear to be turning in the background at the Hokie athletic nerve center, with several decisions predicated on other decisions that haven’t been made yet. He slightly referenced that by saying he was excited for “this new era” which will include a new structure that will be more like professional football for the football program, and more like a professional business for the athletic department in general.
But he did not expound. That could be because he doesn’t know, or could be because he’s not going to be part of those plans. The mention of a new structure that will be more like professional football could be a nod to bringing in a general manager like several other schools have done, and letting that person run the sport. I kind of thought Bruce Arians was working with the athletic department on something similar a year ago, and maybe now they’re going to fund it.
The mention of running things more like a professional business (which I thought Virginia Tech had been doing all along) could be a reference to maybe breaking the business into divisions, where someone runs football, someone runs the other revenue sports, and a third person runs all the non-revenues from a business standpoint. In that scenario, Whit may still be involved long-term, only removed from football and basketball.
But these are all guesses on my part. All we really learned today was there are a bunch of plans going on with no details, and that there’s another Board of Visitors meeting on September 30.
Otherwise, today was like watching a favorite television show where you hoped to hear more about certain characters, but the plot did not get advanced and all you were told was to stay tuned until the next episode.
Which is what we will have to do until September 30.
