Less than a week after the Sun Bowl and Attrition Season is already underway. Virginia Tech has granted defensive tackle Kris Harley his release according to Mike Barber, beat writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to Barber, Harley didn't travel to El Paso with the team.
Harley was a highly regarded 4-star prospect in the Hokies 2011 recruiting cycle. As a freshman in 2011 Harley pushed for playing time, but was ultimately redshirted. In 2012 Harley played in 10 games and tallied 191 defensive snaps. Last season he only played against Western Carolina for 6 plays.
Comments
What position?
That's actually my bad Koastal Kings, I accidentally hit publish and the first post was missing that. Caching issues on the website sometimes make the original version show up.
My fault, I was so blinded with rage that anyone would even consider leaving Tech that I must have missed it.
Understandably so. Wasn't trying to be a dick with my reply btw.
Best of luck to him on his future. I just think he was going to fall way behind on the depth chart with Walker and possibly Nnadi coming in.
Wish him well and gratitude for his time as a Hokie. Just proves again that star ratings do not guarantee how well a kid will fit into your system.
Wow...This should make the pitch for nnandi much sweeter#
Can't say this is a total surprise, and I'm sure he'll find playing time elsewhere. I wish him well
From his twitter it seemed as he hadn't been with the team for awhile. From practice reports I had read he seemingly didn't bring best effort all the time.
From a depth perspective this spring it does hurt a lot. I think VT only has 3 scholarship DTs this spring if Maddy doesn't enter the NFL draft. There definitely will be a ton of playing time available for Sobczak and Ricky Walker. Hopefully Nnadi sees there's a lot of playing time to be had as well and if VT misses on Nnadi might be a good idea to start looking at a backup plan DT recruit like how Luther Maddy was. For the spring might have to ask a guy like Dakota Jackson or Fuller Hoepner to play DT for depth in team portion of practice.
In order to run with the big programs have to have great interior DL play. Right now VT have very little depth up the middle on the front 7.
I read an article after his freshman year where he said he didn't realize how much effort was required at this level coming. He had said he pretty much expected to come in and be able to compete without too much effort. I guess his work effort didn't pan out too much after that as he stayed behind in the depth chart. Not surprising. Wonder where he will go. Wish him luck, although at most other decent football schools he's going to have to put in work to excel.
I remember after he committed, there were a couple of interviews where he said he wasn't doing the workouts recommended by tech. Instead, he was doing his own routine with his high school coach. Always struck me as odd and a poor way to start your career, and I wasn't surprised when the initial reports had him showing up out of shape.
Wish him the best and hope he finds success somewhere
I wouldn't be shocked if Wade Hansen and Matt Roth moved inside for bodies, but seeing one of the freshmen enroll early would be welcome. I won't speculate on why things went south with Harley, but athletically he was a perfect fit for the Hokie gap scheme and was always disruptive when he got snaps in 2012. Sadly, he looked awful in the August 17th scrimmage until he blew up Matt Arkema on a zone play, but making the tackle he injured his shoulder and never got his spot back.
Lot of talk about the Fullers on here, but we're going to miss those Hopkins boys, too. Wasn't there a younger one, supposedly knicknamed "Jump"?
"Jump" Hopkins is only in the 9th grade, I believe.
Yep.
So he already has offers from LSU and USC
USC-east I'm guessing you mean?
Probably USCw - Kiffin was recruiting kids in 7th and 8th grade.
While I get Andy's point, the next time someone says recruiting rankings are meaningless, show them this article:
http://www.sbnation.com/college-football-recruiting/2014/1/2/5237008/flo...
FSU's starters averaged 4.09 stars. Auburn's stars averaged 3.59 stars. You win with people.
Note Andy didn't say meaningless (and few knowledgeable people do), he just said not to take them as gospel. Yes, teams with higher recruiting rankings generally have higher overall talent levels. However, individuals that are rated higher aren't necessarily better college football players.
More people around here dismiss the rankings as meaningless than take them as gospel. The rankings aren't perfect and there are biases in the system but they're right more often than not.
I think it also depends, to an extent, on the position they play. I seem to recall Jeff Grimes saying something over the summer about there being more 2* and 3* OL in the NFL than there were 4* and 5*. I wonder if some of that comes down to a kid simply being bigger and stronger than someone else in HS and not much more. When we get analysis from knowledgable guys like French, praising a kid's technique rather than just being a battering ram, there's more to it to back it up and the ratings are believable. The skill players are probably easier to compare head-to-head: speed, decision-making, route-running, throwing mechanics, etc. So it makes me wonder if there is a disparity in the accuracy of OL/DL vs RB/WR/QB ratings. Anyone have any insights? It makes sense in my head, but my ability to evaluate players is limited, at best and I'll freely admit it!
I really like where your heads at, but am far too lazy to actually do the leg work to support your hypothesis. Instead, I think I'll just claim it's true and that I "read it somewhere"
Or, you know, watch the game on Monday night.
Auburn also won 2 games last season with the same athletes.
That's not entirely true..Nick Marshall is new to Auburns roster this year..He's a JuCo transfer and he's an extremely significant addition to the roster. Auburns QB position was so terrible last year that Nick Marshall came in and started right away in his first season on campus. Auburns starting QB from last year is now playing safety. That says something about the lack of talent at the most important position on the field. You're not going to win many games, especially if you're playing from behind, with a QB who is so bad he loses his job to a freshman and gets moved to safety. I know a lot of people have given Loeffler a lot of shi* about how bad his offense was last year but as French and Mason pointed out in the off season, the scheme was fine but the QB couldn't convert 3rd downs which really killed the offense all season. Enter Nick Marshall and you have a completely different looking offense.
Think about Glennon...only about 7X worse. That's about what Auburn had last year. Try to win some games in the SEC w/out a QB and you're gonna have a bad time.
Don't forget that Auburn had a 1000 yard rusher (Tre Mason) and a 500 yard rusher (Onterio McCalebb) who averaged 5.86 and 6.06 ypc, respectively. Meanwhile, in only 257 attempts, their combined QBs had 15 picks. Yeesh. Perspective: Thomas had 13 picks in 402 attempts. So Malzahn had a very solid rushing attack to build off of when he got here. Add in a solid QB who can run the read option game and doesn't turn the ball over (5 picks in 212 attempts), and you've got the makings of a very good football team.
And with Auburn, lets not forget the recruiting budget you are going to need to land your next JC QB "transfer". Whats the going rate for a Scam Newton level player, 6 figures I believe.
Wonder where he's gonna go.
Too bad. We saw some flashes of talent from him. Best of luck to him.
When opportunity arrives, it always looks like work.
For some, that's a deal breaker.
Well said.
What's the latest on Corey Marshall?
I thought late in fall camp, it was determined he'd just redshirt 2013
I saw somewhere that said he was leaving the team for good, did anybody else hear this?
I asked Andy Bitter about it tonight. His response was that Cory practiced with the team throughout the fall. He said that he thought Cory was part of the last practice in Blacksburg before the bowl that was open to reporters. He also noted that Cory was regularly spotted doing extra conditioning work after practice, and that all the work he put in seemed like a bunch of effort from a guy who was planning on leaving. At the same time, everyone else keeps tweeting me that he is gone. All we know right now is that Harley is the only player who has been given a release as of right now.
...who wasn't planning on leaving I think you mean?
I vt.edu searched him and didn't see him enrolled. That's never a good sign.
He's critically important next year. Without him, we're thin at DT and DE. At least at DT, we have Sobczack (no idea how to spell his name, yet), Walker and hopefully Nnadi who would be expected to play. At DE, Mihota is working his way back from injury. A guy like Kevin Bronson is critically important.
Often times, athletes are hidden from vt.edu searches so that you can't get their address, phone numbers, or e-mail addresses from a simple search.
I fully trust in Wiles and his decisions. I do, however, wonder if Harley was given the chance in a game (in the 2 deep) to make a difference how he would have played. To me he was both lazy and explosive, undisciplined and a game changer. So basically extremely frustrating.
You can see he has flashes of making great plays in Spring Games and practice, but he was ALWAYS in the dog house. Wiles is always about technical play and knowing your assignments, but I remember watching another coach, a Mr Bown, play and he was just lights out energy. Couldn't control him. He just played. Look at that Texas game. I've never tried to analyze whether or not he was true to his assignments but he certainly played on the edge of what could be termed disciplined, positional play.
Would we have seen the 4 star Harley in a game situation? Maybe not, but I kind of wished he had gotten the chance to prove it.
I agree. Part of the what has hurt VT's recruiting on defense is that Bud's D is a "system". We lament the high-ranked recruiting misses, and it can't help when recruits see several of the 4 stars we do get not even see the field an any significant way.
I'm not saying there wasn't good reason. I trust the coaches to put the best chance to win on the field.
But it's not like we are an SEC team with too many 4 stars to play. Every one that doesn't play at VT stands out more as an example other teams in our strata, or aspiring to our strata, can use as leverage.
THIS. I have the same feeling this is why we never can recruit highly rated LB as well. Dadi is a LB in NFL not DE, but in our system he plays DL. Our LBs sometimes play as Safeties. Only CBs seems to naturally transition into the same position in the League. And highly ranked recruits want 4 years playing their position to prepare them for playign on Sundays. Always been a concern of mine.
But in Bud we trust, and his system does work. So it's a toss up.
If Dadi could learn just a bit of coverage, I'd actually really like to see him play more LB
Most Highly Ranked Recruits these days seem to actually only want two or three years playing their position (depending on Redshirt) as the sooner they reach the league the better. They will suffer a fourth year if its critical to improving their status with the league.
I will always remember him for "The Harley Mash"
I could watch this a thousand times and never get tired of it!
Great kid - had the opportunity to meet Kris during the spring of 2010 as a volunteer at Special Olympics in Blacksburg. He and Bruce Taylor did wonders for inspiring the Special Olympics athletes.
Best Wishes, Kris.
Its good to see stories on here that show a different side of a guy. Not all depth chart and stat related.
I wish nothing but the best for him. If it's not working its not working. Good luck in the future Mr. Harley.
Best of Luck to Kris. I wish it could have worked out for him.
Talent is an attribute that gets you there, skill is something has to her developed to keep you there. Stars can't measure a persons heart, or will to win or work ethic.
I had Corey Marshall in one of my classes last semester. Seemed genuinely excited about the team and about what they were doing, but he ended up not showing up at all for the last month and a half.
Mike Barber said on the J. D. Howell show (hooray for the TuneIn Radio app) that when he last talked with the coaches, they had every reason to believe that Corey Marshall WILL be playing for the Hokies this fall.
I initially read this as Corey Fuller. I was very confused for about 45 seconds before I read Corey Marshall.
Anywho, played in all 27 games in 2011 and 2012, started 5 of them at DT. Hopefully he's figured it out and is ready for football.