While today was huge as far as boosting the future of our run game, I'm reminded about the post I wrote a week or so ago about how crowded our backfield is/will be. Anthony Scott, a running back from Va. Beach, is considered a heavy VT lean (247 has 100% predictions of him committing with us). If he commits, that will give us FIVE RB recruits in this class, to go along with 5 linemen and 2 QBs. Cray.
Other than Scott, I know Nnadi, Minor, and Keihn (who is committing next week) are the top remaining recruiting targets. Any other lower-key guys we're hoping for? I don't even know if we have room for many more, since we're already nearing the 25-man class cap for 2014.
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Steven Peoples but he could walk on.
I don't think there's any way we can take Scott. 5 RB are too many. Even 4 are too many. He is lightning fast so perhaps the coaches see him at CB or WR?
BTW, my personal hunch is that Taylor plays LB for us.
The reason he wants to come to Blacksburg is because we were one of the few schools to offer him as a RB. Shai's commitment could change his stance, but still
Ford, the WR commited to Louisville
Kevin Bronson, DE out of FLA visiting in January. Good offer list. Bronson
A few of the guys undoubtably will have to prep or some would be willing to grey shirt, numbers always workout
I don't know how hard we are still recruiting him, but I just noticed Lamont Simmons' lead recruiter from Penn State is Anthony Midget. Good to see Hokies in other places
Tim Settle is a huge 5-star DT recruit that we can hopefully steal from UVA
He's 2015 I believe
Having 5 too many of whatever is never a bad thing. Competition is good. The only downside is if our coaches oversold them on how much playtime they would get that could affect recruiting down the road.
I agree. This past summer, our CBs that stayed with Tech only got better because of the stiff competition to start.
We've got 85 scholarships for 25 starters. 11 offense, 11 defense, long snapper, kicker, & punter.
Punters and kickers getting scholarships is rare, but ours usually do. Ditto long snapper. So that's 82 slots for 22 positions. The basic math gives us 3.72 players per position. That's enough for a starter, a backup getting reps, a 3rd stringer for depth and then for most positions, someone red-shirting.
When you start putting 5 RB's on the board in just one class, when you've already got 5 - Edmunds, Coleman, Mangus, Caleb and Wright), suddenly your positional balance is all out of whack and you can't sign as many TE or OL as you need.
Which is even more ironic considering we are signing two more quarterbacks to give us 5, as well as 5 linemen in this class.
Often the kids who play QB or RB in high school are great atheletes. Why not have kids with athleticism who can be fitted into other positions. I don't think any team ever said "We have too much RB depth"
Yes but look at how many walk-on guys we have playing.
How many scholarships are currently available?
UPDATE: According to my calculations, these are our remaining 2014 targets (let me know if I missed any):
Derrick Nnadi, DT
Raymon Minor, LB/S
Anthony Scott, RB
Isaiah Ford, WR
Kevin Bronson, DE
Jacorien (Jay) Payton, LB
Minor and Nnadi being the top two of course. We haven't offered Bronson or Payton, and I doubt Scott will commit now that McKenzie has. 247 lists VT as Payton's top offer, but we have yet to offer him as well.
If we get Nnadi and Minor, not only will that just about reach our cap for this class, but I won't feel bad at all if we miss out on the others.
We have 24 recruited so far for 2014, BUT - four have already enrolled and will count toward the 2013 Class. They don't count toward the 25 limit on Signing Day.
So, that leaves 4 remaining slots, BUT - a few will prep/greyshirt, and will count toward the 2015 Class.
And there will be more attrition before this coming Spring and next Fall.
To make a long story short, we have the room to take the rest of our primary targets.
I think Payton has had some qualifying issues, which is why VT hasn't given a commitable offer yet. Bronson is likely to commit on his official visit in January.
If he gets an offer.