The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Talked to a very successful local high school football coach yesterday. He told a story about Wilder inviting one of his kids to an official visit one weekend. After the visit Wilder did not offer the kid even a shot at walk-on status. The coach and kid were both very surprised, but went a week or two later to VT where the kid was offered a walk on chance. He went on to block 2 punts against Ohio State in a huge game and had a nice career on special teams.
This coach said he does not think Wilder invests much energy recruiting 757, but had no thoughts on why. He really questioned Wilders ability to judge talent.
Same coach said the star rating system is a complete joke and has virtually no relation to reality. He said in all his years of coaching (lots of years). He has never seen anyone from 247sports evaluating his players and said none of these systems consider intangibles like game IQ or determination and effort.
While I still thin k the star system has some value, I'd say based on this conversation I'm inclined to give it much less weight.

If he went on to have that career that means this was 5 or maybe 6 years ago? Let's hope people get better at things and the recent perception of an uptick in local recruits is a sign of that.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

2014 - Ohio State vs VT
Punts by Ohio State
1. 24 yards- possibly tipped
2. 37 yards- pinned at 11 yard line
3. 63 yards
4. 33 yards- pinned at 3 yard line
5. 35 yards- pinned at 8 yard line
6. 46 yards

2015 -Ohio State vs VT
Punts by Ohio State
1. 37 yards- pinned at 12 yard line
2. 34 yards - out of bounds - possibly tipped
3. 45 yards

Using the box score, it's hard to see two blocks in the same game given those results. Maybe he had one tipped punt in both games?

So how do we react to a " very successful local high school football coach" that tells lies to OLD DOMINION? There were no blocked punts (or field goals) in the 2 games vs. VT and Ohio State.

If you tell us the coach, we can look up to see if the kid even played.

Why in the world would you characterize his comments as Lies? . Older folks reaching back into their memory are not infallible. That does not hardly make them liars. Your comment says far more about you than him.

Besides, verifying the accuracy of his memory ( and mine). completely misses the point of the post.

(07-05-2018 10:11 AM)Old Dominion Wrote:  Why in the world would you characterize his comments as Lies? . Older folks reaching back into their memory are not infallible. That does not hardly make them liars. Your comment says far more about you than him.

Besides, verifying the accuracy of his memory ( and mine). completely misses the point of the post.

What would you characterize the comments if they don't have a shred of truth to them?

And how do you think it appears if a local coach was telling a story about another local coach that is completely untrue?

My question was a reaction to the "point" of your post. How do we(ODU?) react if a local coach is saying things that aren't true? How do we fight a perception that isn't correct?

(07-05-2018 09:56 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  If you tell us the coach, we can look up to see if the kid even played.

Based on the information given, I would guess the player is Willie Byrn and the coach is Sam Scarborough.

(07-05-2018 10:43 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(07-05-2018 09:56 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  If you tell us the coach, we can look up to see if the kid even played.

Based on the information given, I would guess the player is Willie Byrn and the coach is Sam Scarborough.

He actually produced as a WR and had several walk on offers. Possible, but would be odd to bring up fake blocked punts for a guy that was a legitimate offensive player.

(07-05-2018 10:43 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(07-05-2018 09:56 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  If you tell us the coach, we can look up to see if the kid even played.

Based on the information given, I would guess the player is Willie Byrn and the coach is Sam Scarborough.

That would be funny because Byrn went to school with Nick Dew who was an all-American 4 star recruit in HS who washed out at VT and was rumored to transfer to ODU. He never made it to campus and hasn’t played football since from what I can tell.

(07-05-2018 11:09 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  

(07-05-2018 10:43 AM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote:  

(07-05-2018 09:56 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  If you tell us the coach, we can look up to see if the kid even played.

Based on the information given, I would guess the player is Willie Byrn and the coach is Sam Scarborough.

He actually produced as a WR and had several walk on offers. Possible, but would be odd to bring up fake blocked punts for a guy that was a legitimate offensive player.

It would be odd. But from a quick glance at the roster for both years I don't see anyone who fits the criteria of being a walk-on who played for a longstanding coach in the 757.

Derek Dinardo. google his highlights to watch him block punts (team may be wrong so in Giles world this makes it all a lie.) But my point still stands Derek and Willie are good friends who played against each other in high school and together at Tech. Wilder whiffed on this one. He had the chance to give the son of a local coach a chance as a walk on and maybe help build some good will in the 757.Maybe after Reamon he was afraid?

If it were an exact science it would be easy. But you win some and you lose some. Sounds like we may or may not have lost one in that instance. But there's how many kids on a team? How many positions? Who knows what the back story is. Maybe the position at that time looked full and he wanted to save the walk on or scholly for punter or something else. A single anecdote does not a program make.

Could be totally true with memory twisted and we wiffed and it upset a guy. But the fact is we offer a ton of local kids. Maybe they're starting to turn in our favor as a recent tweet or article pointed out. Perception is realty.

I imagine it might take a while to start changing perceptions of an area like ours rich with talent and a history of going to VT or other such schools.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

BW and company did get us Taylor Heineke..

Coaches miss players all the time. Arguably the best player in the NBA, couldn't get a spot on a mediocre VaTech MBB team.

Derek was a pretty good player at VT, especially for a walk-on. But had BW offered him a walk-on opportunity and he got the same invitation for VT, would he have come here? Probably not. So, the same outcome whether we missed on him or not.

(07-05-2018 12:59 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  Coaches miss players all the time. Arguably the best player in the NBA, couldn't get a spot on a mediocre VaTech MBB team.

You have to discount that. Seth Ducheberg couldn’t judge talent at all. He was the perfect match of ugly looks and ugly coaching.

(07-06-2018 07:30 AM)ODU True Blue Wrote:  

(07-05-2018 12:59 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  Coaches miss players all the time. Arguably the best player in the NBA, couldn't get a spot on a mediocre VaTech MBB team.

You have to discount that. Seth Ducheberg couldn’t judge talent at all. He was the perfect match of ugly looks and ugly coaching.

Really odd situation. Even after that blaring mistake, they didn't correct it by offering Seth Curry either.

(07-05-2018 12:57 PM)ODUODUODU Wrote:  BW and company did get us Taylor Heineke..

Did they? It's been some time but didn't TH's recruitment being with his Dad having a chance encounter with an ODU Administrator in an airport? The Dad slipped him a tape which was handed over to BW.

(07-06-2018 09:25 AM)Roy Munson Wrote:  Did they? It's been some time but didn't TH's recruitment being with his Dad having a chance encounter with an ODU Administrator in an airport? The Dad slipped him a tape which was handed over to BW.

Pretty much.

A lot of times its the kids sending tape to schools at the FCS level. ODU was the first school to offer Heinicke because almost everyone else was scared of by his height. So, they watched the tape, liked him ,and offered him. (then developed him) That deserves praise.