Discuss and share any recruiting topics for February 2021 that don't warrant their own threads. Commits and Decommits warrant their own threads.
This recruiting thread is used to share information regarding VT-specific targets, PWO offers, scholarship offers, visits, camps, and general news, in addition to larger trends. In the interests of limiting load times, check the thread to see if a tweet or 247 profile was already embedded prior to adding it yourself.
[0]. Please do some digging to share original content (e.g. embed the original tweet, not a link to another post/website with said tweet), add context / relevant information and respect the Community Guidelines.
[1] New commitments, decommitments, portal entries, etc... deserve their own thread. Please read the brief best-practice tips at the top of the recruiting forum
Comments
For February 2021 Signing Day-specific discussion, see the thread here:
https://www.thekeyplay.com/content/2021/february/3/feb-2021-national-sig...
Looking ahead (as these threads will likely be primarily focused on the 2022 cycle moving forward), it will be very interesting to see how the eligibility and roster rules will be for the 2022 football season. With returning seniors not counting against the 85 for 2021 that takes major stress off coaching staffs when seniors decided to come back after this season. In contrast, as it stands right now, teams will be expected to get back to the 85 scholarship limit for the 2022 season unless something changes. We could potentially see a TON of forced transfers and very small recruiting classes. Perhaps nobody will be more hurt by this than the 2022 high school recruits.
Yes, everyone crunching to get to 85... yet we will see no depth and walk ons play for VT if someone gets injured.
Hhahaaa
The trains always run on time in Downerville.
Leg, my man.
Yea screw those walk-ons playing!
Checks notes... Previous Walk-ons: Sam Rogers, Jack Tyler, John Engelberger, Willie Byrn, Cody Grimm, Will Montgomery, Orion Martin....
Eh I see where you are going but those players are over 15+ years. Grand scheme of things, having/playing walk-ons is not a recipe for success.
Everyone can find a diamond in the rough here and there, but for every Sam Rogers, there are plenty of walk-ons that never see the field due to skill level.
BTW I am not saying don't take walk-ons, but lets not kid ourselves thinking its ok to settle for walk-ons vs. recruiting higher skilled players.
Yeah, that Orion Martin seems like a real gym rat. Wait am I doing this right?
No. No, you're not. At all.
Weird flex against a guy who went from walk-on to having a couple cups of coffee in the League. Must have been enough of a gym rat for the Dolphins & Lions. Also, I'd remind you he's an alum of a team you supposedly support.
File under: shitposting
whooooosh
Go back and read that list of names again, and tell me what's different about Orion Martin from all the other ones. I think you're fired up from that other thread/potentially druck to funk, haha. Still a shitpost, but not one meant to be taken seriously.
Okay, I trust you - but I guess it was too late last night and too early this morning.
I confess, I still don't get it
it's ok we still love you
ⁿᵒᵇᵒᵈʸ ᵗᵉˡˡ ʰᶦᵐ ᵗʰᵒ
Cause we got too many running backs
You joke, but funny how few RBs we rotated when we Herbert running like a man possesed. Sure didn't seem like we needed 8 RBs on the roster.
Herbert didn't fumble, so Fuente never had to banish him to the Phantom Zone.
Honestly not sure if this sure if this should go in the recruiting thread, the National Signing Day thread or both, but Virginia Tech has signed Kameron Olds as a PWO. Choose us over Norfolk State (his biggest scholarship offer), and PWOs from UVA, JMU, Western Kentucky, and Florida State.
He's a 6'3", 225 lbs end from Midlothian and is a 3* according to 247 (80 overall, no composite).
Not a sight you see too often. First Midlothian player since Matt Arkema I believe we've gotten (not saying much since they're more of the country club sports powerhouse of the 804 not football).
edit:
You don't need to glug glug that one cause his tweet is better than the 247 embed I used, which keeps popping up a new Terms of Service notice. I love the 2021 committed edits, even for walk-ons. I hope this actually does go the way of rebuilding in-state relationships. And that's a great Anderson Cooper gif.
Assume it's a PWO.
It feels like there are some potential transfers and JUCO kids that may still be available to sign but this doesn't seem like one of them... Ricky Slade is no longer on the ODU football team.
What is it with the recent top players in VA. The hit/miss rate on their rankings has gone up a lot the last 5/10 years. Meanwhile the under ranked player from in state turns into quality college and even drafted player seems to be staying the same.
Ox is planning to update tomorrow:
Ooh. Recruiting VA is interesting at the moment. We must do better but it isn't gonna fix everything either.
It's probably good for Fuente that he never committed to VT. Could you imagine the uproar if he had come to VT and not panned out?
Beamer's staff pissed the boat on a few top talents. Joel Caleb and Holland Fisher specifically come to mind. Not everyone will pan out, but the 4/5* players should pan out.
Here's Fuente's top 5 recruits for recent classes according to 247:
2016: top 5 of Evans, Deablo, Jackson, Ladler & Floyd, all contributors
2017: top 5 of Hunter, Proctor, Rivers, Garbutt, Hooker, 2/5 contributors, Rivers transferred, Hunter is in legal trouble but contributed. Proctor went Juco
2018: top 5 of Hollifield, Tre Turner, Q Patterson, Webb, Conner, 3/5 contributors, Webb had injury problems, and Patterson had Hooker in front of him, and then transferred
2019: top 5 of Nester, Payoute, JR Walker, Hudson, Robinson, all contributors, Payoute has injury problems, which are hopefully behind him. Nester and Hudson transferring after this season was disappointing.
Rivers didn't transfer - he medically retired after neck injuries. That's less of a hit or miss and more of a shit luck type thing.
I think I had read something too about how the hit rate for top VA recruits that leave the state has been considerably worse than those who stay. I'm not entirely sure if someone could explain why that happens, but it definitely could be used to our advantage.
Andy spoke to some of that but I can't remember who had an entire breakdown of it but yes I read that also.
Pure speculation on my part, but could part of it be that if they leave to go someplace like OSU, Clemson, Penn State, FSU, Alabama they are either (1) competing for playing time with better players than they would have to compete with at VT or UVa or (2) playing against better talented players from the Big X or SEC? If they go to Clemson or FSU, they are still playing against ACC talent, which has been lower than Big X or SEC, but they still have to compete against lots of 4* and 5* recruits.
Maybe those that leave cannot crack the top 2 where they are. And maybe if they do play at Penn State or Alabama they do not do as well going against OSU/Michigan/Wisconsin or LSU/TAM/Georgia. Could be starters at VT or UVa and do really well with UNC/Duke/Wake as opponents.
That is an interesting take. True or not, if I am a VT coach I am telling these guys something similar to sell a better career opportunity at VT.
I've thought about something similar for a while.
If I want to go pro, the shortest distance there is through VT if you think about it. If I'm a 4 Star and am legit, then I can blow up at VT for 2-3 years and get a lot of good film, whereas I may not even crack the starting line up at Bama.
During the superbowl, I remember one of the players mom's was really noting that her son was D3 and now playing in the superbowl.
Shining somewhere is better than shining nowhere.
While I don't personally agree with this take, This is 100% how Fuente needs to pitch recruits.
Eh...Saban's counter to this in the video that was leaked is really good.
1. "I wouldn't be offering you if I didn't think you could play here."
2. "Practicing against the best is going to make you better."
3. "We have the most players in the NFL out of any school."
Not sure how the smaller schools counter that. I'm sure it's a bit individualized to the recruit but still. If they are offered by Alabama, how do you counter?
I don't think you can fight fire with fire on that without coming across as disingenuous.
You just have to tell them "look, Alabama's a respected program, and if you want to be another cog in their machine, there's nothing wrong with that. But we're building something great here, and we've been doing it with less talent than some of these other programs. If you succeed here, you won't just be a stud with great film and great pro prospects, you (and your buddies in this recruiting class) will be the legends who (insert goals of recruit here)."
This is probably the right way to pitch it. Every year there are a handful of Alabama commits who mention in interviews that the negative recruiting against Alabama being a major turn off for them towards programs who do so, sometimes even pushing them further toward Alabama if they had previously been lower on their choice list. Some of these kids are more gullible than others, but many of them can tell when someone is trying to twist facts or outright lie about a program like Alabama as an attempt to dissuade them.
A while back there was a review of teams that did the best job elevating players to the NFL and VT was one of the top of the list. And that is really the angle, lots of 4* players go to Bama and dont make the NFL, VT puts the ones we do get into the NFL at a much higher rate than them.
Every 5* recruit VT has had was signed by an NFL team (only one was a undrafted free agent due to legal troubles).
It shouldn't be fire vs fire, becuase thats just delusional but practicing against the best doesn't help you if your just the practice squad. We lost a recruiting battle with Bama like 10 years ago for a DT, Korren Kirven, out of Lynchburg. He would have been a huge get. he switched to OT and started 6 games as an RS senior. He went undrafted and briefly was on a couple rosters but didn't play any regular season games.
Most players this is the end, so if you don't make the NFL would you have rather played for 4 years, or road the bench?
This is not wrong, but it's also just not what most high school kids want to hear, and not what's going to convince them to go to a school.
Fans can sit here and look at failed blue chip recruits at big schools as evidence that they should be willing to go to the more middling places, but actual recruits will just view those comparisons as an insult when Saban is in their ear telling them he'll get them to the first round.
It's probably a big reason why we've had success with the transfer portal and zero success with high school recruiting lately, Fuente is probably using this exact pitch which is attractive to guys who have been in the college football system and have experience but rubs highly-touted high school kids the wrong way completely.
100% agree that pitching it they way i do is wrong, but I'm an engineer not recruiter. Also agree that Fuente might pitch this verbatim, because I really think based on his interviews I'd get along with him.
At no point should anyone from VT tell a recruit that Bama is recruiting that we don't think they can play at Bama, they can. Kirven proved he could, he got 6 starts due to an injury. But he was good enough to play there.
But he would have been more likely to be drafted playing at VT. He would have got more playing time to impress scouts. As much as practicing against the best is great, practice and games are different learning experiences, and you can't replace game experience.
We should pitch kids like we did with Kenji Christian...not sure if he got a Bama offer (probably not), but it seemed to work with him
"the guys you practice against will be better than the guys you play against."
Or something along those lines, I think.
How about:
1) Saban may SAY he wouldn't make an offer if he doesn't think a guy can play, but he KNOWS at least a third of the guys he signs will never start a game at Alabama
2) See #1. If you're not a starter by the time you're a junior, you will rarely be practicing against the best. You'll be practicing in anonymity against...see #3
3) Alabama also has the most top 250 high school recruits not to make the NFL because they got stuck on the depth chart behind by an older high draft pick as a frosh & soph and a younger high draft pick as a jr/sr - and didn't ever really get a chance to show what they can do.
Your (3) is what I was thinking too. But how do you tell a kid they aren't good enough to start at Bama?
This is where building an actual relationships and getting to know the kid comes into play. Some 17 year olds are mature enough to hear this feedback. Others are not. You gotta tailor the message based on the individual.
That said, we need to get to a point where we're going head to head with bama and the like before this is actually relevant.
To me it should be easy to counter Saban's 3 points.
1.) Kids transfer from Bama often and even more kids stay just for rings without major PT.
2.) Playing against the best makes you better. Playing with the best makes you complacent. Come to Tech and be the difference maker.
3.) The percentage of high 4* and 5* kids that don't make the L is minimum. At Tech we are putting 3* kids in the league. Just imagine what success we would have with Top 50 kids.
If it were that easy Bama wouldn't have just landed the best recruiting class ever.
Alabama is truly in a league of their own. All due respect to Saban who is without a doubt the greatest cfb coach ever, but Alabama is just playing with itself and will be the champion of playing with itself.
I say let them become the independent semi-pro team they already are, and openly/officially play with themselves for the enjoyment of their fan base.
The rest of the country won't have to continue hearing about how awesome their football corporation is and the state of Alabama can finally be the after-thought it deserves to be.
Yeah I know it's not that easy. If I were a *5 kid I would want to leave a stamp somewhere. There are so many schools that are 2 great recruiting classes away from getting their 1st C'ship. If everything breaks right. I would much rather be a part of a team that finally broke through than a part of the 800th Bama/Clemson/OSU title. I know it wasn't Auburn's 1st title but what Cam accomplished was much bigger than anything Mac did. Mac is that guy that won a championship at Bama that one time. Cam is a Auburn legend....
Nobody is beating Bama's pitch to elite recruits. Their hit rate on putting five star recruits into the 1st round from the 2008-2017 recruiting cycles is 51.5%, with 6 more five stars going in round 2 (like Derrick Henry) that don't factor into that number. The rest of the five stars in that time period made the first round at a 21.2% rate.
On being drafted into the NFL at any round, Bama has put 81.9% of their five stars into the NFL Draft. Of the rest of the five stars from that period 68.1% were eventually drafted.
The reality is that not only are they winning the raw numbers game, they are also developing these guys better than the rest of the country, made even more impressive by the fact that they are working with a statistically significant sample size.
link to article for reference
I'd say that is excellent return on those players.
Of note, we have none at that level the last two classes except maybe Alec Bryant.
Feel like it's kinda harsh to say QP didn't contribute to the program here while he was on the team. Definitely didn't reach the heights we all would have liked, but he started at least one game and played in about a dozen?
Cason Henry
Offers:
VT
UNC
NC State
GT
Pitt
Mississippi St
have we tried recuirting, maybe we'd have more luck with that
Fuente needs to start talking to the baseball coaches for pointers
Or Robie and Frayer or Pete D'Amour😂
#1 in Recuirting in all the things. Yay Hokies!
Relax guys, this year is going to be the big one. The motherload, a star studded class. For '22 it's gonna be 757, NC and TX to VT. Everybody coming to VT. :-)
#Earth2VT
Yeah but it's really the 2024 class you need to watch out for. That one's going to be loaded
Is it sad that I miss "the good old days" when we recruited in the top half of the conference and nationally in the top 30? Very happy to have the players we have coming in, but don't really expect them to ever compete for the conference championship, and probably not even the division given recent results. Hope they prove me wrong, and meanwhile, go Hokie Hoops!
Former Hokie Rico Kearney transferring again this time from UCF.
seems like maybe he should've said "my new new home" instead
Dude quit on us in the middle of the 2018 season.
Don't wear our uniform to try to look more appealing out there. Eff off.
Recruiting staff just got smaller.
Although I respect Iezzi and the uphill battle he fought, I kind of saw this coming. Naming the recruiting coordinators on offense and defense felt like something was changing. Hopefully we can go get someone that has great experience and can bring outside ideas to the recruiting staff. We need to move forward not stay stagnant with a recent graduate that has to learn on the job.
Unfortunately, I don't see this happening from a financial standpoint. We have multiple unfilled position within the athletic department, and the hit the budget took/is taking is not going to improve the situation any.
Meh it's a title. Look around the NCAA so many coaches have extra titles on their name.
Yeah these Recruiting Coordinator titles seem like pay justifications. Assistants are doing less and less actual every year.
This is a loss. I feel for Iezzi since he basically had to build this recruiting department from ground up. I hope he's leaving on his own terms.
Plenty of offers being reported on twitter. I noticed we have sent out offers in Missouri. I know Galen Scott had some connections to St Louis area, and had started to recruit there, but this is the first in a couple of years I've noticed more than 1 or two in the area.
Plenty of TX, FL, and GA offers of late. We are definitely recruiting TN hard this year, and rightfully so. Plenty of talent there this year.
VA kids have had offers for over a year now, some for multiple years. Spring season might add a few more to the list.
Waiting for our first 2022 commit like 😫
Worrisome. Most years we've got at least 1 or 2 in the boat by this point, even if they aren't highly rated. Not having the in person Junior Days and camps is likely going to hurt us more than it would "level the field with the blue bloods" going through the same lack of in person contact. How are we looking in-state right now? Hope we are throwing the sink at Andre Greene, he looks like a stud. Couple underrated guys ranked between 10-25 in VA this year. S Covil, OL Nolan and Meadows, DE Jennings and ATH Bradshaw. I know Bradshaw plays at a small school but he's a multi sport guy with NFL bloodline coming from a local school, the skills he's shown on tape and at camps is FBS level. Hope we've really pushed for him and Meadows coming from Bluefield.
Khalib Johnson out of AL may be #1, commitment date set for 2/20, and it's between us and Louisville.
Ask, and you shall receive
nothing wrong with sharing commitments in the crootin' thread fam, however feel free also to start a new thread to break news of a new commit for some more focused discussion
👍👍
Honestly knew someone would probably beat me to posting an article with potentially a little more insight than just the commitment catching my eye on twitter
Josh Jackson headed in Indiana but it isn't clear if he is done with football.
Doctorate in Counselling Psychology with a minor in Sport and Performance Psychology???
Respect.
The best of luck to you Mr. Jackson!
Given that both Penix and Tuttle are expected back at IU and that JJ opted out of the 2020 season, I don't think football is a serious option but who knows.......
Let's hope so!
I can't stop watching.
The 5 and 4 change to threes! Aaaaaa!!
Add Utah and Ohio to the list of states where we're offering, now.
Just offered another QB from Bama as well:
Come be the next Hendon Hooker, they say!
Getting Covil in the boat early would be huge
pls add links or embeds so it's clear who you're talking about
https://247sports.com/player/sherrod-covil-46099958/
Gobble legit my phone doesn't post links😂
Any information at all beyond a last name would be helpful.
Mega barnwell
What about him? Looks like hes going to PSU.
Those cbs where from last summer but he decomitted from them in December
Do we have a shot with him? Looks like he will be a beast
Yee big chance
Seems like a lot of offers
Probably contingent on how many scholarships are available? IDK, I can't math.
Almost every school will ultimately make 4 or more offers for every available slot (and some might make as many as 15 for every slot). I don't think the number of scholarships available bears any relationship to offers made for at least 3/4ths of schools - if not more than that.
There isn't a lot to be derived from this. It's really just a matter of semantics until the august (I believe) of their senior seasons where these offers become "official" and even then they will be more offers out than they can take.
A school like Clemson doesn't officially "offer" people as often, but it's no different than "not being a take" or "not having the green light to commit" that the majority of kids with these offer are under.
It's all very silly and illogical, but ultimately there isn't a ton to be derived from these numbers.
Hudl Profile
Appesrs to be Class of 2021 so I am assuming PWO.
Tyler Smedley anagrams to Slyly Metered