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ACC former coach of the year added to Indiana staff!

82hoosier

82hoosier

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Justin Fuente, former head coach of Virginia Tech, is now an analyst on Tom Allen's staff. He was a journeyman quarterback in college who had a few very successful seasons as head coach at Virginia Tech. His recruiting dried up and he was fired after a .500 season - a season that would have got Tom Allen another year extension on his ridiculous contract.

After last Sunday's news about Walt Bell being fired and Rod Carey being hired, Don Fischer canceled his Monday appearance on Jim Coyle's show. And then on Friday Bob Kravitz popped up to talk about the new Big Ten schedule. No mention of the Maryland game etc.

Hopefully this will be newsworthy enough to get the attention of the Hoosier talking heads.
 
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82hoosier said:
Justin Fuente, former head coach of Virginia Tech, is now an analyst on Tom Allen's staff. He was a journeyman quarterback in college who had a few very successful seasons at Virginia Tech. His recruiting dried up and he was fired after a .500 season - a season that would have got Tom Allen another year extension on his ridiculous contract.

After last Sunday's news about Walt Bell being fired and Rod Carey being hired, Don Fischer canceled his Monday appearance on Jim Coyle's show. And then on Friday Bob Kravitz popped up to talk about the new Big Ten schedule. No mention of the Maryland game etc.

Hopefully this will be newsworthy enough to get the attention of the Hoosier talking heads.
Click to expand...
Good to see Ron Carey’s job got replaced and Bostad, Tucker, Johnson et. al. got supported. I had guessed they would split extra work with a grad. assistant.
 
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82hoosier said:
Justin Fuente, former head coach of Virginia Tech, is now an analyst on Tom Allen's staff. He was a journeyman quarterback in college who had a few very successful seasons at Virginia Tech. His recruiting dried up and he was fired after a .500 season - a season that would have got Tom Allen another year extension on his ridiculous contract.

After last Sunday's news about Walt Bell being fired and Rod Carey being hired, Don Fischer canceled his Monday appearance on Jim Coyle's show. And then on Friday Bob Kravitz popped up to talk about the new Big Ten schedule. No mention of the Maryland game etc.

Hopefully this will be newsworthy enough to get the attention of the Hoosier talking heads.
Click to expand...
Things went south for Fuente at Va Tech when he began to run out of the previous staff’s players, but I thought his time at Memphis was good overall.

I assume he’ll possibly be an “unofficial” QB coach for the rest of his season, but.guys of Fuente’s caliber aren’t usually brought in to just be an “analyst” indefinitely. It suggests to me that there will be definite staff changes in the offseason-not exactly shocking if it does happen.
 
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82hoosier said:
Justin Fuente, former head coach of Virginia Tech, is now an analyst on Tom Allen's staff. He was a journeyman quarterback in college who had a few very successful seasons as head coach at Virginia Tech. His recruiting dried up and he was fired after a .500 season - a season that would have got Tom Allen another year extension on his ridiculous contract.

After last Sunday's news about Walt Bell being fired and Rod Carey being hired, Don Fischer canceled his Monday appearance on Jim Coyle's show. And then on Friday Bob Kravitz popped up to talk about the new Big Ten schedule. No mention of the Maryland game etc.

Hopefully this will be newsworthy enough to get the attention of the Hoosier talking heads.
Click to expand...
I wonder who's idea this was. Does allen have a previous relationship with this guy?
 
welshman# said:
Things went south for Fuente at Va Tech when he began to run out of the previous staff’s players, but I thought his time at Memphis was good overall.

I assume he’ll possibly be an “unofficial” QB coach for the rest of his season, but.guys of Fuente’s caliber aren’t usually brought in to just be an “analyst” indefinitely. It suggests to me that there will be definite staff changes in the offseason-not exactly shocking if it does happen.
Click to expand...
Staff changes in the off season are highly likely. And JF can’t have contact with players.
 
Hopefully Allen gets canned after next year and Carey & Fuentes do a good job and possibly take over
 
kmathum said:
I wonder who's idea this was. Does allen have a previous relationship with this guy?
Click to expand...
That is definitely the $64 question. At Rod Carey's press conference he said he was going to be overseeing the quarterback position. He said basically that he had picked up his qb knowledge from being an OC and head coach.

Apparently not a great deal of that rubbed off on Coach Allen.
 
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welshman# said:
Things went south for Fuente at Va Tech when he began to run out of the previous staff’s players, but I thought his time at Memphis was good overall.

I assume he’ll possibly be an “unofficial” QB coach for the rest of his season, but.guys of Fuente’s caliber aren’t usually brought in to just be an “analyst” indefinitely. It suggests to me that there will be definite staff changes in the offseason-not exactly shocking if it does happen.
Click to expand...
Apparently he got none of Virginia's top 10 players in his last season while Penn State recruited six of them.
 
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Jackskip23 said:
Staff changes in the off season are highly likely. And JF can’t have contact with players.
Click to expand...
That’s what I mean by “unofficial” but maybe (for example) Bostad leaves for a better offer in the offseason, Carey takes over OL again. And Fuente becomes the actual QB Coach going forward
 
82hoosier said:
Apparently he got none of Virginia's top 10 players in his last season while Penn State recruited six of them.
Click to expand...
I think there was also some expectation Fuente might be able to make some recruiting inroads in the state of Tennessee but that didn’t really pan out either
 
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welshman# said:
That’s what I mean by “unofficial” but maybe (for example) Bostad leaves for a better offer in the offseason, Carey takes over OL again. And Fuente becomes the actual QB Coach going forward
Click to expand...
Definitely a possibility.
 
Fuente, 47, last coached at Virginia Tech in 2021. He was fired after the Hokies fell to 5-5 on the year following a 5-6 season in 2020. Fuente posted a 43-31 record and a 28-20 mark in ACC play in 6 seasons at Virginia Tech. He earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2016 for guiding the Hokies to a 10-4 record in his first season.

Before Virginia Tech, Fuente was the head coach at Memphis. In 4 seasons, the Tigers were 26-23 under Fuente. The 2014 Memphis team went 10-3, winning the Miami Beach Bowl and finishing No. 25 in the polls.

Fuente has an offensive background as an assistant coach. He was on staff at TCU for 5 seasons, coaching running backs (2007-08) and quarterbacks (2009-11), while serving as co-offensive coordinator the final 3 seasons. Fuente was also a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator during his time at Illinois State (2001-06).

https://saturdaytradition.com/india...cc-head-coach-to-staff-as-analyst-per-report/
 
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82hoosier said:
Justin Fuente, former head coach of Virginia Tech, is now an analyst on Tom Allen's staff. He was a journeyman quarterback in college who had a few very successful seasons as head coach at Virginia Tech. His recruiting dried up and he was fired after a .500 season - a season that would have got Tom Allen another year extension on his ridiculous contract.

After last Sunday's news about Walt Bell being fired and Rod Carey being hired, Don Fischer canceled his Monday appearance on Jim Coyle's show. And then on Friday Bob Kravitz popped up to talk about the new Big Ten schedule. No mention of the Maryland game etc.

Hopefully this will be newsworthy enough to get the attention of the Hoosier talking heads.
Click to expand...
Saw this in five spots on the inter webs without looking for it.

Not news to any of them
 
welshman# said:
Things went south for Fuente at Va Tech when he began to run out of the previous staff’s players, but I thought his time at Memphis was good overall.

I assume he’ll possibly be an “unofficial” QB coach for the rest of his season, but.guys of Fuente’s caliber aren’t usually brought in to just be an “analyst” indefinitely. It suggests to me that there will be definite staff changes in the offseason-not exactly shocking if it does happen.
Click to expand...
Apparently he whiffed on all of Virginia's top 10 players in his last season while Penn State recruited six of them.
 
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Fuente is a hell of an offensive coach. The offensive staff has a ridiculous amount of talent on it. Carey is considered a strong offensive coordinator, Fuente was an elite offensive coordinator, Tucker is highly regarded and had excellent seasons as Co-OC's and as an OC and Bostad is a highly regarded line coach. If they can't get it together with that group than Allen really has some fundamentally wrong with the architecture of the program.
 
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MMcCormick said:
Fuente is a hell of an offensive coach. The offensive staff has a ridiculous amount of talent on it. Carey is considered a strong offensive coordinator, Fuente was an elite offensive coordinator, Tucker is highly regarded and had excellent seasons as Co-OC's and as an OC and Bostad is a highly regarded line coach. If they can't get it together with that group than Allen really has some fundamentally wrong with the architecture of the program.
Click to expand...
This is good to hear. Hopefully we will show improvement. I would like for our offense to show some confidence and play with passion.
 
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My knowledge of the college football world isn't much. But reading the above comments and others on Fuente and Carey just make the Bell hire look even worse than it did on Day 1. Allen needed a home run hire (or at least a solid single) to stop the bleeding and maybe save his tenure at IU, and he ended up with Bell. Meanwhile there are apparently coaches out there that have had good success willing to sign on at IU.

Either Allen is a dufus or the AD really tied his hands at that time. Just makes zero sense to hire Bell off his 2-22 or whatever record, and mediocre at best track record as an OC for a couple years at a time at other stops before that.

Hope there's still some chance to save the season.
 
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welshman# said:
Things went south for Fuente at Va Tech when he began to run out of the previous staff’s players, but I thought his time at Memphis was good overall.

I assume he’ll possibly be an “unofficial” QB coach for the rest of his season, but.guys of Fuente’s caliber aren’t usually brought in to just be an “analyst” indefinitely. It suggests to me that there will be definite staff changes in the offseason-not exactly shocking if it does happen.
Click to expand...
Allen will put him on defense like he did Carey. That's the smart move according to the folks on this board.
 
MMcCormick said:
Fuente is a hell of an offensive coach. The offensive staff has a ridiculous amount of talent on it. Carey is considered a strong offensive coordinator, Fuente was an elite offensive coordinator, Tucker is highly regarded and had excellent seasons as Co-OC's and as an OC and Bostad is a highly regarded line coach. If they can't get it together with that group than Allen really has some fundamentally wrong with the architecture of the program.
Click to expand...
Tucker had one good year and his last year his offense was bad.
 
Coaching is only one part of the equation. You need talent. The best coaches can only do so much if their team is less talented.

We had no one drafted last year and haven't had anyone in the first 3 rounds since 2017 (Dan Feeney).

Hoeppner/Lynch had Porter (2nd), Hardy (2nd), Saffold (2nd).

Wilson had Latimer (2nd), Coleman (3rd), Spriggs (2nd), and I'll credit him with Feeney (3rd).

Not necessarily a recruiting problem, could be a player development issue.
 
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hoosierfan13 said:
Coaching is only one part of the equation. You need talent. The best coaches can only do so much if their team is less talented.

We had no one drafted last year and haven't had anyone in the first 3 rounds since 2017 (Dan Feeney).

Hoeppner/Lynch had Porter (2nd), Hardy (2nd), Saffold (2nd).

Wilson had Latimer (2nd), Coleman (3rd), Spriggs (2nd), and I'll credit him with Feeney (3rd).

Not necessarily a recruiting problem, could be a player development issue.
Click to expand...
It’s both.
 
RegionHoosiers said:
My knowledge of the college football world isn't much. But reading the above comments and others on Fuente and Carey just make the Bell hire look even worse than it did on Day 1. Allen needed a home run hire (or at least a solid single) to stop the bleeding and maybe save his tenure at IU, and he ended up with Bell. Meanwhile there are apparently coaches out there that have had good success willing to sign on at IU.

Either Allen is a dufus or the AD really tied his hands at that time. Just makes zero sense to hire Bell off his 2-22 or whatever record, and mediocre at best track record as an OC for a couple years at a time at other stops before that.

Hope there's still some chance to save the season.
Click to expand...
I agree. The Bell hire has turned out to be a bad decision. I’m sure the decision was based on potential, just needing the right opportunity.
 
RegionHoosiers said:
My knowledge of the college football world isn't much. But reading the above comments and others on Fuente and Carey just make the Bell hire look even worse than it did on Day 1. Allen needed a home run hire (or at least a solid single) to stop the bleeding and maybe save his tenure at IU, and he ended up with Bell. Meanwhile there are apparently coaches out there that have had good success willing to sign on at IU.

Either Allen is a dufus or the AD really tied his hands at that time. Just makes zero sense to hire Bell off his 2-22 or whatever record, and mediocre at best track record as an OC for a couple years at a time at other stops before that.

Hope there's still some chance to save the season.
Click to expand...
It was a mind-boggling decision and captured the issues with Allen in a nutshell. His key hiring decisions have been horrendous. Wilt as DC , no experience as a DC. The dude from Georgia, no track record as a DC. Guerreri had a poor track record as a DC. Bell had a terrible track record. Sheridan had no experience. He does not seem to value statistical success when he hires people. I do think he got the Bostad, Tucker, Carey and Fuente hires right so maybe he's changed his thought process of something. But he went 0-5 years on hires.
 
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hoosierfan13 said:
Coaching is only one part of the equation. You need talent. The best coaches can only do so much if their team is less talented.

We had no one drafted last year and haven't had anyone in the first 3 rounds since 2017 (Dan Feeney).

Hoeppner/Lynch had Porter (2nd), Hardy (2nd), Saffold (2nd).

Wilson had Latimer (2nd), Coleman (3rd), Spriggs (2nd), and I'll credit him with Feeney (3rd).

Not necessarily a recruiting problem, could be a player development issue.
Click to expand...
There is no question talent is also an issue. It's always eye opening to me that when guys leave IU and transfer they rarely impact the schools they go to and often times these are smaller schools.
 
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It Will Do said:
I agree. The Bell hire has turned out to be a bad decision. I’m sure the decision was based on potential, just needing the right opportunity.
Click to expand...
Bell was the only one that would come with 500k and coach Allen putting up 200k to get him here. I want to know the breakdown of the hiring of Carey pay before I will say Dolson put all the pay after telling coach Allen all the money was gone. If this is all Dolson I will praise him for football but if Dolson paid all the money then he lied to coach Allen.
 
MMcCormick said:
There is no question talent is also an issue. It's always eye opening to me that when guys leave IU and transfer they rarely impact the schools they go to and often times these are smaller schools.
Click to expand...

We supposedly had the 15th ranked transfer portal class in the nation this year. Most of them are starting. Allen raved about Carter. He’s done virtually zilch. So, either the eval on these guys was way off or they don’t perform under Allen.
 
Big Red Crimson Buffalo said:
We supposedly had the 15th ranked transfer portal class in the nation this year. Most of them are starting. Allen raved about Carter. He’s done virtually zilch. So, either the eval on these guys was way off or they don’t perform under Allen.
Click to expand...
Recruiting portal guys can be a crap shoot just like HS kids. Could be their lack of playing time was because of their ability
 
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MMcCormick said:
It was a mind-boggling decision and captured the issues with Allen in a nutshell. His key hiring decisions have been horrendous. Wilt as DC , no experience as a DC. The dude from Georgia, no track record as a DC. Guerreri had a poor track record as a DC. Bell had a terrible track record. Sheridan had no experience. He does not seem to value statistical success when he hires people. I do think he got the Bostad, Tucker, Carey and Fuente hires right so maybe he's changed his thought process of something. But he went 0-5 years on hires.
Click to expand...
Allen seems to go with younger guys he can mentor.

Maybe he doesn't like proven coaches who may question him?
 
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