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 was already embedded prior to adding it yourself.
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Meta: I pushed a TKP update today that filters and removed embeds from 247Sports. Two reasons:
I know the embeds were useful, but moving forward, simply link to the profile and provide a summary of what's relevant to the post.
No worries, removing the embeds, while a nice little snapshot of the recruits profile, should make these threads load and run a lot smoother, especially since the tend to garner a lot of comments.
Links will be just fine. The insert link function is very easy to use.
Glad I wasn't going crazy thinking that the n Key wasn't working for just me.
Strage mie is workig fie (I thik)
This guy is druck
My screen name is a combo homage to a) The Dead Kennedys and b) a little inside joke my crew had:
if you'd had several toddies, you were "drunk". If you were three exits past hammered, you were "Druck".
Does anyone have a Scooby Carter update? Seems like Fuente made the offer but it was only committable pending some sort of administrative review?
Carter got accused of domestic assault (was charged, got dropped) - with what's going on Devon Hunter, I don't blame VT admin for apparently giving the non-green light.
If his charges got dropped offer the man. He was a former top 50 recuirt
No updates as far as I know. I hope he gets the green light.
DISCLAIMER: I WILL REMOVE IF AGAINST COMMUNITY GUIDELINES - EDIT: THOUGH THIS POST DISCUSSES AN ARTICLE ON THE ATHLETIC, TURNS OUT JOE DID A SIMILAR ARTICLE ON TKP A WHILE BACK. HE LINKED IT BELOW.
I won't put too much info here due to the paywall, but Andy Bitter posted an interesting article about Dorian Strong's recruitment over on The Athletic. Though not the primary subject of the article, it speaks to the ability to find "diamonds in the rough."
Apparently we hadn't heard of Dorian Strong (and neither had anyone else really) when he showed up at our camp in 2019. It wasn't until we offered him that other schools really showed interest in him.
I'm glad we had the good fortune of having him show up at our camp, and the good coaching talent to make a solid evaluation. It's kinda crazy to me that we hadn't even heard of him though.
Do y'all think a more fully funded recruiting department would help find more guys like this, or are these situations so few and far between that we should focus our recruiting resources on more known quantities?
They used to be much more common, and it meant that there were a lot more market inefficiencies to exploit to build up your program with guys that weren't rated very highly, but probably should have been blue chips. The recruiting industry's rapid expansion and growth, social media, HUDL, the crazy camp circuits, 7on7 leagues, etc have made recruiting more and more accurate over the years. It's a lot harder for guys to fly under the radar, but of course they still do, but in smaller numbers.
So yes, it's important to have a staff who can eval gems like Dorian Strong, but in today's recruiting it's a very risky game to try and build classes full of hidden gems and personal evals, because it's unlikely you're going to hit on a ton of them in any given cycle.
I think the best way to increase your team talent level is the most obvious one. You invest more money into recruiting AND recruiters.
For anyone interested, I interviewed Strong after his commitment and that provides background into his recruitment: https://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football-recruiting/2019/08/183....
The latter. Think of it from a numbers perspective - How many kids visited a VT camp in 2019? Say 500? Let's also suppose there's 25 scholarships available each year. To find 25 Dorian Strongs, you have to evaluate 12,500 kids per year.
Now, I'm oversimplifying, and in reality it's not that big of a number, but the point stands - finding a diamond in the rough takes a lot of effort. It's much more practical to have a system in place that can recognizes those guys when they cross your path (like Dorian Strong) than have a system designed to seeks those guys out.
Edit: Just reread TKP piece as well as the piece on the Athletic. I don't think any P5 program can survive by recruiting purely/mostly 'diamonds in the rough,' but I do think that VT can scout/offer kids early in process, in hopes of creating a 'first mover's advantage' so to speak.
Funding is an excuse more than it is a problem. If Fuente needs a charter jet to close on a QB prospect in California- he has one at his disposal. Our coaching staff is toxic in talent rich tidewater and richmond close to home and the on field product is not good right now- loses to G5 teams, no identity, no bowl/big wins. Not money- that's an excuse.
Overall I agree with this. I think if Fuente was recruiting to the funding level we provide we would average a top 20-30 class. We are not living up to that right now. If we were, the debate about funding becomes a discussion of our recruiting ceiling and how we would need revenue to move it upward. Fuente is not maximizing his resources right now and until he does, adding more funding will have less than the desired or expected impact.
However it will still have some impact, so I'm not gonna complain when we spend more money on recruiting.
It's a lot like sales, hit rate is 20%, and you need to book $20M, then you need to bid/target $100M. Make your job easier, by bidding the bigger opportunities, $3-5M+ sales, at less volume, you're bound to get 1. That's a big chunk.
Recruiting success is measured by class rank. You would need MORE offers out the door to hit 20-30 range class rankings at the rate of 3* recruits we are getting.
A more focused effort on bigger targets, pulling in 1 or 2 5* recruits each class is a chunk to the class rankings. This is why people are upset with our recruiting classes the last 2 cycles. We are whiffing on our top talent prospects. It makes our classes look weak, while strong as others, b/c it is devoid of star power.
Hell I'll take 2 4 stars tbh๐
VT received a crytsal ball prediction recently from Evan Watkins for 6'3, 250lb SDE Rashaud Pernell out of Highland Springs. Pernell is a mid three star (.8617) by the composite but an 89 for the 247 in house rating. We are his only CB so far.
Any headway we can make in attracting players from Highland Springs again is a huge win. If we're rekindling that relationship, then that's big news.
Also gave a CB for Braelin Moore, an OG from Bethlehem, PA class of 2022. No ratings yet but recruited by Vance Vice himself. I trust his eval
Edit: Looks to be brother of current Hokie Kaden Moore
Also just got a CB for Braelin Moore, an unranked DL/OL prospect out of PA, and brother of current Hokie Kaden Moore.
Braelin is 6'3", 290 pounds, and listed as both defensive tackle and offensive guard. We are currently the only P5 offer (with other G5 offers from Bowling Green, UCONN, Buffalo, Central Michigan, and Kent State). This probably isn't much of a shock since his brother was a late riser and a flip from Bowling Green.
Deja vu......
Penn State TE Zach Kuntz just announced he going into the portal.
Former 4* recruit, giving me Bucky Hodges vibes as a 6'7" athletic WR/TE hybrid. Same high school as Andrew Ford. Beamer/Lefty offered him as an underclassmen in HS but he committed to Penn State in his junior year.
The impressive part to me is he's a graduate transfer after getting his degree in three years, x2 Academic Big 10 Selection.
EDIT: Appears Fuente already has some sort of relationship with Kuntz as Kuntz was the first Class of 2018 recruit that Fuente "officially" recruited.
Would love any good athletic tight ends to help with the depth this year. I feel like austin powers trying to ignore the mole though when I see his name.
Pretty cool graphic for a recruit pitch.
I am so confused by this. He's not committed? But we sent him a graphic showing what his phone messages would look like if he did commit? Either way the hype element is coming through and that is cool, but what is his shrugging emoji about? Is he saying he's doesn't know about VT or the graphic? What does it all meannnnnn????
not Hokie specific, but recruiting news relative to the current state of transfer portal shenanigans nonetheless.Edit: updated
Tennessee staff wouldn't have been allowed in a bunch of Alabama high schools if they didn't reverse course on this, that's for damn sure.
I'm glad they are ultimately doing the right thing, but it's absurd that they ever even tried to control where he could go after they all lied to him.
seems as if Auburn is the likely landing spot for him.
Other school recruiting news, NC State lost their Director of Personnel Billy Glasscock to Texas. That'll be a pretty big blow to their recruiting / portal recruiting prospects.
Big blow to lose a glasscock?
I didn't see this coming
Not a good poker face, you could see right through him
Don't shatter it into pieces
I guess he was just pushed to the breaking point.
2 new CBs for the good guys for unranked 6'4" 230 TE Harrison Saint Germain out of Westfield HS in Chantilly. link
Tech offered the end of January. Other offers include Wake and Yale.
He commited Fam!!!
yep just like that, fish is in the boat.
Will be interesting to see how he develops. Only film they have on him is Sophomore year. He starts his junior season this week. Won't be surprised to see a huge jump on his game film. Personally speaking, sophomore to junior year was probably my biggest progression. Sounds like he was born and raised Tech though, so not overly worried if bigger offers come.
The '21 class was hard to evaluate and the '22 class will be interesting with some of the players playing this spring. Player ratings will be moving all over the place or be less relevant this year as some of these kids will not have Jr. film to review at all.
Former VT target Grant Holloway set the 60m hurdles world record.
Bit of a rankings update for anyone who wants to know more about those things (use the information at your own peril):
Had some subpar showings in camps, rumor is he's no longer a take for Clemson.
Gunnar pls
That rumor. Yes
Will he end up at tech? 50/50
*insert* readytobehurtagain.gif
Staying positive Sherrod will come to Blacksburg. Fall football being out of action may have slowed down some offers, and kept us in the ballgame.
Anyone in Virginia have some insight on how the Spring HS football season is shaping up? Same question for California in regards to DJ Harvey.
Have games begun? Is it a shortened season? etc.
I believe Spring VHSFB practice started this week. Not sure on timing of games and season length. One of my friends is a JV coach in the area and he said JV teams were dropping in their league and they are down to 3 games. He is in one of the outlying smaller counties though.
DJ Harvey you could probably check his dad's or his twitter and see any updates about starting up.
VHSL practice began Feb 4. First games were this past Monday Feb 22. VHSL regular season ends April 2. 6 game maximum regular season. 4 rounds of playoffs will follow to crown state champions in each of the 6 classes. Some school divisions have opted out completely, some have opted out of VHSL competition and will compete amongst themselves playing for city/county championships (Suffolk City 757 and Frederick County in NW corner of state fall in this boat). Very challenging thus far with all the protocols and routine being so thrown off. It's hard at the HS level, I could only imagine how hard it was for P5 programs even with them having more resources than us. Very thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to play though! Has been huge positive for our mental health!
Has there been any discussion on what this means for the next season?
Obviously just making it through this season will be unique so don't want to look so far ahead, but is the plan to try to play fall football again come August, if possible?
I'm pretty sure that's the plan. Which I'm kinda looking forward to cause Giles is switching to MED next season
That is the plan, to get back to a normal start to fall season come July/August. It will be fun to go from football season right into 7 on 7 and start a new season 3 months after this one ends. Should provide for good retention and more quality football at the start of the next season. The biggest downfall is that if any underclassmen have any major injuries (ACL tear, broken/fractured extremity) during this spring season, it's highly likely that they'll also miss the fall season, which would really be gruesome for a rising senior.
DJ Harvey made a pre-season all-state list. Sierra Canyon opens up on March 12
https://scorebooklive.com/california/2021/02/25/sblives-preseason-califo...
would be a geat pick up
composite 3*, 0.885 with an 87 rating by 247
https://247sports.com/player/myles-pollard-46085804/
6'-2" 185lb CB from Brentwood, TN for those that don't want to open up 247
I like our chances
From Nashville and with those other 5?? Why do you like our chances?
From what I heard
Us and Mich
This is a really good recruiting graphic IMO
https://247sports.com/player/patrick-kutas-46103516/
Patrick Kutas OT/DT 6-5 284 composite .8688 from Memphis, TN
Don't know about recruiting, but this kid had fun getting to the end zone
Also, Hopewell crushed Colonial Heights 60-0.
804TOVT plssss