Mike Young questions 'who the hell wouldn't want Cal and Stanford in your league?'

Head coach Mike Young took the Virginia Tech Hokies across the country on Wednesday to take on the Stanford Cardinal. That’s ahead of playing the California Golden Bears this upcoming weekend as the Hokies are making road trips to some of the new schools in the ACC.

Following the game, Young was asked about his experience at Stanford. He then used that as a jumping-off point to praise the new schools in the ACC this season.

“Outstanding,” Young said. “I mean, fellas, who the hell wouldn’t want Cal and Stanford in your league? The academic reputation of those two institutions — and SMU, which is also a terrific academic school with a proud alumni base.”

Stanford and Cal joined the ACC ahead of this season and in the wake of the Pac-12 losing a total of 10 schools. That included four schools that left for the Big 12 and another four that left for the Big Ten. At that point, SMU also made the move, leaving the AAC as the ACC looked to solidify itself moving forward in a college environment full of unknowns.

“Is it different? Well, there’s a lot of things different in college athletics right now,” Young said. “Okay? So, the thought that we have Stanford, Cal, and SMU in our league, I think it’s awesome and I am thrilled Kyle and Mark over at Cal are a part of this thing. SMU football, I saw what they did. They’ve got great athletic tradition here across the board. So, I am as happy as I can be that we were able to add three great places such as those that I mentioned.”

In his first game coaching against Stanford as an ACC foes, the Cardinal won 70-59. That was despite the Hokies going into halftime with a five-point lead. Stanford had a strong second-half effort, outscoring the Hokies by 16 points to take home the win. Ben Burnham led the way for Virginia Tech, scoring 18 points off the bench. Tobi Lawal and Mylyjael Poteat both scored in double digits as well for the Hokies. With that loss, Virginia Tech dropped to 6-9 on the season and just 1-3 in ACC play.

Mike Young and the Hokies will look to bounce back on Saturday, January 11th when they take on Cal in Berkeley.