Jon Vilma on search committee

DeAngelo Hall ever come by? My brother has seen him in the area 2 or 3 times in Bristol. I go to ETSU. I might have to check out Fudge's place.

Nope. But Thomas Jones has.. I forgot about him. He's got a little garage looking space going on. He wants to expand or get in with a bigger gym and rent out something bigger. This place started out with 3-4 guys coming in every now and then to full basketball teams, football teams and everything. What year are you at ETSU? Are you from the area?

Yea, I am from Bristol. Live right at the Speedway, so it's not too far of a drive to JC. I'm in my 4th year, but only technically a junior since I haven't been full time the entire time.

I went to UT and played baseball then transferred to king to play then transferred to Tennessee Tech to play as a grad transfer lol. My brother is at king now.

I never expected to see other people from the area on here. I especially didn't expect to hear that Vilma has been here before. I'd love to just sit and talk with that man for hours about Canes football.

I remember he came in and talked at 6 and his talk went til about 7 and after that I was there until almost 11 talking to him. So close to 4 hours just talking about canes, and just anything. Probably the best experience I've ever had in my life to this day
 
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Some coaches fail at certain destinations before they ultimately succeed.

I just feel Strong would kill it down here.

Just a hunch but of course I could be very wrong lol
 
Nope. But Thomas Jones has.. I forgot about him. He's got a little garage looking space going on. He wants to expand or get in with a bigger gym and rent out something bigger. This place started out with 3-4 guys coming in every now and then to full basketball teams, football teams and everything. What year are you at ETSU? Are you from the area?

Yea, I am from Bristol. Live right at the Speedway, so it's not too far of a drive to JC. I'm in my 4th year, but only technically a junior since I haven't been full time the entire time.

I went to UT and played baseball then transferred to king to play then transferred to Tennessee Tech to play as a grad transfer lol. My brother is at king now.

I never expected to see other people from the area on here. I especially didn't expect to hear that Vilma has been here before. I'd love to just sit and talk with that man for hours about Canes football.

I remember he came in and talked at 6 and his talk went til about 7 and after that I was there until almost 11 talking to him. So close to 4 hours just talking about canes, and just anything. Probably the best experience I've ever had in my life to this day

That's awesome. I need to show up at Fudge's wearing all the Canes gear I have to make a good first impression.
 
This is an honest question. Vilma has played at the highest level of football, and is a really sharp guy. So if he in fact thinks Strong is a good choice, that carries a lot of weight with me. He knows a lot more about football than I do.
 
Some coaches fail at certain destinations before they ultimately succeed.

I just feel Strong would kill it down here.

Just a hunch but of course I could be very wrong lol

I have to say that there are so many things wrong in this program from Coker, Shannon, and Golden and I think Strong could fix a lot of them. He would be able to recruit, like anyone else, but I think he would land the big name players we have missed for years. I think the discipline and toughness would be fixed under him, and I think our defense would be better (I'm scared about his stint at Texas for this reason. I can overlook everything else. But he is supposed to be a legit defensive mind and his defense has been as bad or worse than his offense). Another thing that worries me is the staff he would have, mainly on offense, where the biggest thing about bringing him period would be who is his OC. It better be someone different than he's had anywhere else. Eddie Gran or something similar and I'm sold.
 
This is an honest question. Vilma has played at the highest level of football, and is a really sharp guy. So if he in fact thinks Strong is a good choice, that carries a lot of weight with me. He knows a lot more about football than I do.

I agree. I can't say I'm not nervous about him possibly being hired, but if Vilma has a say in it I can live with it. I'm going to be 100% legit with you. I've talked to Jason Witten, Phillip Fulmer, Coty Sensabaugh, Gerald Sensabaugh, and heard many other prominent former and current NFL players and prominent former college coaches. Jon Vilma is the smartest football guy I've ever heard talk, except Peyton Manning.

There is stuff you would never consider being important traits of a football player, or coach, or whatever that he brought up and it all made sense. I have to imagine that comes from who he played for with the Jets and Saints. He didn't learn it from Coker.
 
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This is an honest question. Vilma has played at the highest level of football, and is a really sharp guy. So if he in fact thinks Strong is a good choice, that carries a lot of weight with me. He knows a lot more about football than I do.

I agree. I can't say I'm not nervous about him possibly being hired, but if Vilma has a say in it I can live with it. I'm going to be 100% legit with you. I've talked to Jason Witten, Phillip Fulmer, Coty Sensabaugh, Gerald Sensabaugh, and heard many other prominent former and current NFL players and prominent former college coaches. Jon Vilma is the smartest football guy I've ever heard talk, except Peyton Manning.


Vilma is a guy whose opinion I respect. I am glad that Miami has included him in the process. Very smart move.
 
I asked the guy last night if he could squeeze in a few questions to Vilma if he got a chance about the coaching search. He woke up to a few texts this morning and recently got another right before I saw him today. I didn't get much. Vilma basically told him he's not going to ruin his opportunity on being put on this committee by giving out any info, but he also said there isn't much to share as of now.

I did give two specific questions, I told him to ask what he thought about Strong, if anything has changed since a few years ago and about Butch and his response was basically that he likes Strong but what is going on at Texas is a red flag, Butch's situation is over his head as of now. (Maybe they are looking into Butch still, and his name won't hit the committee for opinion until he gets through all the compliance and NCAA ****? Idk that's all he said)

They basically talked about what has gone down so far, they had one initial meeting with the UM search committee and the firm. The UM committee threw some names at the firm that they were interested in, the firm is doing their thing on those names.

Last thing he got for me was a text that read something like: There's one guy on everyone's minds, that is the top of the list right now... and something like.. we'll see how deep the pockets are at UM.

He hasn't responded to anything else. I don't think he's going to give any inside info. I'm not going to make this guy bug him either. Just a wait and see approach. I like the idea that they are shooting big. I'm hoping it's a Patterson or even Herman that they are looking at right now. Looks like they are above Mario though, and obviously they are aware of Strong's struggle at Texas.

Hope someone enjoys this. It's a little refreshing to know some of this stuff. This is probably the only time I'll ever get inside info for anything on this site. Unless he just out of the blue tells this guy more info, I'm not bugging him anymore. If he gets it though, I'll pass it along.
 
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Good stuff. We're all desperate for anything, so even though this isn't a lot, it helps us from becoming crazy for now. I'd love to know who is at the top of the list. Vilma being on the committee and what he said gives me a good amount of hope.
 
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My friend from work that just went to UM this semester for grad school also said there is a rumor going around that Blake wants Bielema. I hope that isn't true. Also, on TOS a poster claimed he had a friend that works at Korn Ferry that said the names they are contacting for UM are Bielema, Jim Mora, and a few other names. Matches up with what he said. I doubt that is the hot name being thrown around by everyone, though.
 
Jim Mora? We goin to the playoffs? Playoffs?

Maybe he meant Jim Mora, Jr., from UCLA? At any rate, very fascinating stuff, OP. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if the big name could be Chip Kelly? I'm not sure who else would get such a universal consensus and break the bank.
 
Last thing he got for me was a text that read something like: There's one guy on everyone's minds, that is the top of the list right now... and something like.. we'll see how deep the pockets are at UM.

...Are we going for Chip? OH BOY.
 
My friend from work that just went to UM this semester for grad school also said there is a rumor going around that Blake wants Bielema. I hope that isn't true. Also, on TOS a poster claimed he had a friend that works at Korn Ferry that said the names they are contacting for UM are Bielema, Jim Mora, and a few other names. Matches up with what he said. I doubt that is the hot name being thrown around by everyone, though.

So we end up with some coach from Wisconsin anyway? After having Coker destroy everything. Isn't Bielema going to come in and fatten our players up even more than Al? I don't see him or Mora, old or young, worth some big paycheck.
 
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I will say that assuming this info is legit (have no reason to believe otherwise) it's great news. Not necessarily even for the specific names mentioned, but because they are vastly different names from the same half-dozen we've been recycling since Golden was fired. If true, that at least shows that they're looking and willing to conduct a real search. That's the most encouraging news I've heard so far.
 
Jim Mora? We goin to the playoffs? Playoffs?

Maybe he meant Jim Mora, Jr., from UCLA? At any rate, very fascinating stuff, OP. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if the big name could be Chip Kelly? I'm not sure who else would get such a universal consensus and break the bank.

Yes Jim Mora Jr from UCLA is what the post said. In reference to the guy on the top of the list.. I don't think it's Bielema. 2 completely different places where I got info of the deep pockets and the Jim mora jr and Bielema stuff. I think he's just a candidate Blake wants to interview. Can't argue with that though, we should also go after Dan Mullen, another coach that will never make it in the SEC and could win at UM. At least interview those guys you know?

I'm really curious to know who they are going hard after, whether Chip Kelly or whoever. I was kind of assuming a current college coach, a pretty big name of some sort. Gary Patterson (could be a bidding war with TCU, Tom Herman (could be a bidding war with several schools), Dan Mullen maybe. Idk. Chip Kelly makes over 8 million right now, could be way deeper than our pockets are going, unless he just wants to come to college again or gets fired. Very possible either way. We would have to literally hand the guy a blank check and fight off USC and every other opening if he were fired.
 
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Some coaches fail at certain destinations before they ultimately succeed.

I just feel Strong would kill it down here.

Just a hunch but of course I could be very wrong lol

So you think Golden will kill it at Penn State or Rutgers? SMH
If you're good, your good.
 
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