Discuss and share any recruiting topics for April 2022 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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Comments
https://247sports.com/player/lance-williams-46101455/
3 star OL from TN. Crystal Ball to the good guys
Our first commitment of the 2023 class could be OL? I'm not opposed to that at all.
The keys to a good house are a strong foundation and solid walls
Pretty sure the keys to any house are actually keys...
Then why do I keep trying to unlock my house with my car key fob?
Not for my apartment. They have these things that are obnoxiously bulky in my pocket and don't work half the time.
I hate it.
Interesting that his recruitment started with Vice
And closed with Rudolph. Always be closing.
Delivering Christmas presents all year round
2 fun facts
Just watched his commitment live on the local news channel. Locked and loaded to go VT
So we got him?
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Hmm 110% to VTU, I don't like those odds.
s/
Pretty much par for the course.
And with the first commit of the 2023 class, Brent Pry selects Lance Williams, Offensive Lineman from Tennessee!
Man I was so bummed that we did not go with a running back. Very large S associated with that.
Missed this a couple weeks ago but also got a CB for this 3 star LB from VA
https://247sports.com/Player/Tavorian-Copeland-46129728/
https://www.hudl.com/profile/10943540/Tavorian-Copeland
I love his offer list...seems like a very smart young man! Even smarter if he chooses VT!
He must be smart. Said Virginia Tech, not Virginia Tech University.
Recruit him hard, he's a keeper.
Former Hokie Joe Bamisile has transferred, again, this time to Oklahoma.
He's definitely a P5 talent. Averaged 16 with 5 rebounds at GW.
I'll still never understand why we didn't get him more minutes lol
He was a raw freshman who played a similar role to Radford
He just needed time to develop, likely on defense, just like Maddox.
Basketball news;
Tyrell Ward plans to release his Final 6 on April 29th. Seeing that we just cleared two spots with the Alleyne and Ojiako transfers, we can get him easy now. But since it looks like he's in no rush to make a decision, I think you can infer those moves aren't about Ward if the staff is indeed making room for guys to bring in.
Update: We landed an official visit, which is pretty big news imo because the competition for this kid has picked up a ton over the last few days. No one has a read on any way he's leaning. Hopefully this visit makes a huge impact.
Update: It's down to us, LSU, and Georgetown. Fwiw, Georgetown recently hired Jordan Brooks to its recruiting staff and it is Brooks that got Ward to Xavier in the first place.
Jeez. 6 players enter the portal, Hoyas go 6-25 for the season, 0-19 in the Big East, lose in the 1st round of the conference tourney, and end the season on a 21 game losing streak. Ewing gets a vote of confidence from the AD. Now there's a school I'd want to play for.
LSU b'ball is a hot mess.
I'm sure I'm missing something.
I'm not $ure what that $omething you're mi$$ing i$.
Georgetown (for various reasons) is a dying program on its last breaths. NIL has given them a chance through wealthy alums to inject some cash into the program in hopes of shocking a pulse back into it. We'll see if it works but even if they land some guys, it might be too far gone.
Crystal Balls turning up Georgetown, don't get your hopes up
If he wants to pick Georgetown over us, honestly what can you do. We are the ACC champs and they are a straight up bucket of ass
In a bit of a surprise considering the way it looked the last couple of days, Ward chooses LSU over Georgetown (what looked to be the favorite) and us.
Bummer basketball news
Prized transfer Noah Carter committed to Mizzou. Was scheduled for a visit this weekend and was believed to be very real possibility for us.
Well shit
The basketball transfer portal seems to make almost less sense than the football one. Carter would have been a great add but probably fits better on our presumed 2023 roster than on next seasons I think? I would prefer a bit more height to replace Mutts/Aluma fwiw, interested to see how things shake out the next 2ish months.
Maybe like this? 6'8 and 232. We made the cut for his final list of schools
Came here to post this! Yeah someone who can play the 4 and shoot like him. He also has over 100 career assists so appears to do lots of things that made Mutts so valuable
Probably going to uva. Has connections to Tony Bennett
With the Spring Game on Saturday, is there any intel on what recruits might be attending? Wishful thinking has me hoping for maybe a commit or two, but who knows.
I like this guy a lot
https://247sports.com/player/jayvontay-conner-46114863/
That's a very odd list, FSU is really a different beast than the rest.
Yeah, not bowl eligible
FSU has been hitting North Carolina hard for '23 so it's not surprising to me.
Got a A@M offer yesterday
Wonder how much $$ was included on it
I'm guessing the A&M offer far exceeds our new NLI agreement with Hardee's for the enhanced coupon book. /s
Looks like Trotter committed to WVU.
Glad to see LSU kept the Will Wade vibe by hiring an assistant away from Memphis where he would have learned how to use bag men to bribe cruits under Hardaway.
Update to this; Camden is down to LSU and us.
They will pay him. I hope we do too if we really want him. Bottom line.
Meta, but any interest in splitting basketball recruiting and football recruiting threads?
EDIT: Any interest in starting this in May?
Seconded.
Yes please. Bare minimum, posters should comment on whether it's a basketball or football recruit and not just embed a tweet or something. I find the threads impossible to follow to the point that I rarely care to read them.
I saw 6'8" 232lbs and thought "hell yeah" then saw basketball and thought "oh...hell yeah?"
Yes, please.
Yes please
I think we could get away with just a yearly basketball recruiting thread since it has less volume and stick with monthly football recruiting threads. That'd be great to get them separated again.
Cross-post with the Spring Game thread. 247 had a couple write ups about the JUCOs and High School that planned to come to the spring game. Doubt its all inclusive but pretty good idea of who had announced the were coming
JUCOs
HS Recruits
Any interest?
a 6'7" 243lb wide receiver?! I see the numbers on the screen in front of me, but they do not compute with my brain LOL heck yeah I hope VT is interested!
He's a TE, not a WR. And he caught something like 8 passes last year, so don't get too pumped.
Nevertheless, he goes way back with Jason Brown and the rumor mill sounds like there's a decent chance he could end up at VT, but it's not certain if VT has interest.
I was just going off him being listed as a WR on ESPN and the SC site. Looks like it is a hybrid TE/WR role that he mainly plays.
From Fredericksburg, was a 2* out of HS so don't get your hopes up too much that he would come in and be a day 1 starter
Yeah those middling 2* and barely 3* WRs never work out... Just ask LOLUVA.
Seriously though, Bronco made his hay offensively on exactly these types of WRs - and many of them were very good ACC players.
Disagree. The only thing Bronco did well at UVA is land Perkins and Armstrong. They were the 2 best QBs in the coastal in their time - thats key.
BINGO. And unfortunately, Armstrong is going to be back next year.
So? We beat him this past season.
He had one of the most atrocious OL I've ever watched and zero run game to support. If any of these areas improved he could be a lot better
But they could catch, so at least he had that going for him
I thought their OLine was supposed to be stellar last year? It's been seemingly a century since football was played so I forget but I remember their run game not existing.
Their OLine starters were all seniors and a junior going into the season and has a 2nd team all american and Rimington finalist center. In short...I don't think their line is going to get any better.
They were tied for 119th/130 FBS in sacks allowed at 40 sacks in 12 games. UT and UNC were the only worse P5 teams.
So they were the 3rd worst pass blocking team in the country
They lost their best OL in the portal to Michigan on top of that
Praise Be, Portal!
Recorded their spring game (#Brennan&TheWannabees) and the OLine was non existant. Brennan QBed both teams the first half and mostly seemed to be working on a quicker release so he can survive the season. He and the tight end Misch looked good but that was it. That team needs a lot of help in a lot of places. Stadium was seriously empty, not a soul in half the stadium behind Carla during her interview which pretty much screamed "We're a basketball school so this is all good". Start delayed by some softball game then cutaway again before the end but my biggest takeaway was "What the heck was Tony Elliot thinking when he took this job?"
So, its the same as it ever was.....
Others noticed as well.
pretty much nothing by big game boomer is ever worth posting here since the account just tries to generate interactions by any means necessary. usually it's a mix of defensible and objectively ridiculous opinions to have plausible deniability and get fanbases yelling at the account and each other
Perfect example. Last week they rated UVA as having the number one campus.
and i bet the replies were a nice mix of laughter, incredulity, and plaintive wailing of "don't you know we call it the grounds"
While walking around their "grounds" before a football game a few years ago, I was crossing the "lawn" with some buddies and said kind of loud and within earshot, "their little yard here ain't bad looking, kind of small, but okay." Pissed off a few BooHoos.
Hokies basketball hosting a trio of transfers/recruits this weekend.
Tyrell Ward. High 4 star SF from Dematha HS
Efton Reid. Former 5 star center transfer from LSU
John Camden. Former 3 star SF transfer from Memphis
5 star center?
Gimme all these. Combining these guys with our other incoming class launches our talent level into the stratosphere.
Idk about getting all 3. I think there is a very good chance for 2
Ward and Reid would be glorious
News to get everyone's hopes up; Reid just started following a lot of Hokies on the socials. Make of it what you will
GIVE. ME. ALL. THE. HOPE.
Update on this; on the free side of 247, Chris Arvin is saying we've got a commit and the announcement could come as soon as today. It's NOT Ward. So we either got Camden (my guess) or Reid, maybe both.
Also, some insiders elsewhere have given crystal balls and predictions for Ward to Georgetown
Kentucky OL RJ Adams entered the portal today. He was the #13 player in VA (3* .8817 rating) for the class of 2020.
Got in some trouble at UK just as an FYI. He was one of 6 players hit with a burglary charge. Sounds like the 6 players went to a party but were asked to leave. Then came back, busted in the door and took some stuff. One player had a gun.
I would never have expected this from football players at KENTUCKY! Such strong discipline there.
Isn't Jahvontay Conner committing today?? Thought we were favorites but don't see any CB's or even a mention about it.
He committed to UCF.
Very odd choice
NIL szn
QR Code Jerseys
Got a couple of Crystal Balls for a 3 Star 2023 EDGE guy out of Richmond
https://247sports.com/Player/Jason-Abbey-46130509/
https://www.hudl.com/profile/13027717/Jason-Abbey
Freeman getting a D1 schollie? Really? The original DSU?!?! (Dopey Scissors University for you young bucks). That's awesome. I know a couple kids from Tucker got schollies last year.
Great to see some of these, otherwise doormat (or maybe dormant is the word 🤔), programs having college level talent be seen.
Hey now! We've sent plenty of D1 Football players to the likes of UofR!
Even a few were on Tech's roster the past decade. Don't think any of them had meaningful snaps.
Per Hokiesports, Coach Brooks announced the signing of redshirt senior transfer center Clara Ford. She is a 6-3 Virginia native from Boston College, who played in a ton of games, but rarely ever starting. Should provide good depth behind Kitley.
Now we're going to need a separate WWB thread.
It's a good problem to have.
Did Pry just put up the bat signal? https://twitter.com/CoachPryVT/status/1517665544815665152?t=IuybcGAaNSs7...
Mines qt'd eyes and included #VA2VT
Jason Abbey
https://twitter.com/EvanGWatkins247/status/1517676605509939200?t=8b2rt26...
Yes, I guess that's what that was!
Congrats, Jason!
Cameron Seldon and a couple other recruits was at tech today watching the softball game
Bunch of new offers for 2023s going out lately!! Saw a great name on one of them, Hannes Hammer! 2023 OL from North Cross
Wyatt Teller approves
And apparently he's a big fan of Coach Pry. Gimme all the 6'3" 330 lbs DL
via GIPHY
4* composite class of 2020 from Carmel, Indiana
https://247sports.com/Player/Cole-Brevard-46049014/high-school-206985/
👀
Lots of smoke around a potential BIG get for the basketball team
Anyone got a good reid on the situation?
Hearing good stuff
Before I start frantically messaging my friends, how valid is the source?
Any idea if this was about Camden or is this more focused on Reid?
I Reid it as the latter
Flood of CBs in for Ward to Georgetown, God only knows why but 🤷🏻♂️ dude has looked the other way from VT twice now
Yeah that's Brooks dude is the biggest reason he going there and I don't understand it tbh😂
Sam Pendleton chose Notre Dame. Finalists were ND, Michigan, Clemson, Penn State and NC State.
Former wide receiver Tyree 'Showtime' Saunders is in the transfer portal again after a year at ECU. Didn't have any stats for last season for the Pirates.
Watching guys bounce around their whole eligibility is always a bummer to see.
Doesn't even mean he's bad either, maybe impatient. ECU has a lot of good upperclassmen receivers
Any update on the Efton Reid situation?
Nothing new. We're in it for sure with him, some plugged in types across the sport think we're leading. Couple of Big 10 schools in it for him as well. Decision could come any time now
A "non-official" update on Reid because I got tired of not seeing any real news and did some digging myself. None of the following info is paywalled and you can get it yourselves if you want to waste time searching various forums, socials etc.
Business for Reid has picked up. Week ago it looked like he was a VT lean with Michigan and Illinois as possibilities. He's still taking visits to different schools. Gonzaga is making a big push for him (might be favorites right now). UNC has been in contact. Louisville may be prepping a big NIL offer.
Best I can tell, some still think VT is in a very good spot. But, and I may be reading too much into it, I'd be very cautious right now. I've personally gone from thinking we're likely to get him to its a toss up. Reid ended up at LSU because Will Wade stole him from Pitt last second (coughMONEYcough). If you read the tea leaves right now with how his process is going, it looks like he's shopping around for the best NIL deal. Considering he's been a VT lean among a couple of plugged in types for a couple of weeks,still hasn't committed, and new schools are showing interest (Zags, UNC, etc), this should be a concern imo.
FWIW for those worrying about big man depth, it looks like we're still in the lead for Grant Basile and we're going hard after St. Bonny big man Osun Osunniyi (a lot of others are too). There's still some nice front court players out there (those two, a couple others) if we miss on Reid
Gonzaga
There it is. Looked that way when I was digging through things last night
87 rated 3 star athlete out of DeMatha in MD. CB currently set for Maryland
https://247sports.com/player/dante-lovett-46115798/
Thanks for adding this Superman!!
Quick reminder for all that it's best practice to also include some basic context: either 247 link, a quick blurb (3* ATH out of Maryland), or a sentence or two of description
Remember when we were clearly the better choice compared to those other 3? I can't wait to get back to that status.
By the sounds of it, with the new regime, we're still in the hunt for Braylon Johnson (son of Loren Johnson) 3 star safety from Highland Springs
https://virginiatech.sportswar.com/subscription/2022/04/28/braylon-johns...
Also, from his quote in this, for those who say one-off losses to programs like ODU and Liberty don't hurt recruiting, it seems this recruit has a different outlook.
It wouldn't be a 1 off if we lose to them again... I get it from his POV. He wants to go to a quality program and right now, we are an unknown. He will wait it out. Good for him.
Nice. Would be a solid pickup and a good vote of confidence from an alum and huge HS football figure in VA.
Also "I'm not trying to knock him, but I don't think Coach Fuente knew what he was doing" is an all time line
LMAO... "we agreed to play at ODU's bullshit stadium to help prop up their program for recruiting purposes".. ooops Whit. Here we have a legacy recruit that doesn't want to be embarassed to commit to a school that could lose at ODU. LMAO. Cancel the fucking series Whit...or make them come to BBurg every fucking game.
The only benefit I can see of VT playing at ODU, is that I might get to see VT play and only drive an hour and a half to do so
No benefit- zero- none to VT playing at ODU. None. After we played there our recruiting was the worst its been in 40 years. So the recruiting bump is BS- 100%. No benefit playing them on the road.
Bingo, and cancel liberty and wofford while you are at it. Play real teams, get better through competition. It is bullshit playing weak teams.
the wofford game is likely included as part of the mike young hire, we don't have a series with them
How about we just actually win the games against them, and in spectacular fashion. That's better, right?
I think the point was to have a game in the Tidewater region that was easier for potential recruits to go see compared to getting to Blacksburg. Granted, as pointed out, losing that game doesn't do the program any favors at all.
Bingo. Just win. DCwilson with the losers mentality-- we can't win so don't play the game.
Yup, we should be able to roll them over every year. I like this series better than the ECU or biberty ones. I just don't like ECU and it doesn't have the same impact on recruiting. Biberty has no business being legitimized by any major program, especially ours.
I wouldn't call it a loser's mentality, but instead it's a mentality that the game is neutral-lose for VT. What does VT gain by beating ODU? If VT is to be big boy program with Division/Conference champion aspirations, there is no benefit. It provides no exposure (who is watching that game?), it provides no recruiting advantage (what recruit is saying yes to VT with an ODU win?), it doesn't make the team better, and it barely helps VT reach any post-season goal (it only helps VT reach 6 wins for a bowl game, barely a benefit and shouldn't matter if VT is going to be a big boy program in the mediocre ACC). So why try and win a game that provides nothing.
Playing any mid-tier or better P5 is way more valuable. Exposure, recruits will notice, the team will get quality reps, and wins will help in post-season discussions.
If we are a big boy program then we don't need to play other P5 teams, it's rare other teams do it. Other teams don't need big marquee games to recruit.
Wins is all that matters for most people. We get 10+ wins and no one will care who we got them against. We'll be ranked.
Is that why Mischie backed out to play a softie? Yes. But you have to use some excuse. My only comment is that a negotiated number of tickets need to be available for Hokie Club members if we are going to play there. Its not closer to our fans if our fans can't get tickets.
Exactly.
P5 teams playing FCS teams this year are:
Florida State: Duquense
UNC: Florida A&M
Wake: VMI
Miami: Bethune-Cookman
UVA: Richmond
Clemson: Furman
GT: Western Carolina
NC State: Charleston Southern
Boston College: Maine
Pittsburgh: Rhode Island
Syracuse: Wagner
Kansas: Tennessee Tech
Texas Tech: Murray State
Kansas St: South Dakota
Iowa St: Southeast Missouri State
Baylor: Albany
TCU: Tarleton
West Virginia: Towson
OK State: Arkansas Pine Bluff
Iowa: South Dakota State
Nebraska: North Dakota
Wisconsin: Illinois St
Northwestern: Augsburg
Minnesota: Western Illinois
Purdue: Indiana State
Rutgers: Wagner
Illinois: Chattanooga
Arizona State: Northern Arizona
Cal: UC Davis
Stanford: Colgate
Oregon: Eastern Washington
UCLA: Alabama State
Utah: Southern Utah
Washington: Portland St
Arizona: North Dakota St
Oregon St; Montana St
Auburn: Mercer
Texas A&M: Sam Houston St
Vandy: Elon
Georgia: Samford
LSU: Southern
Ole Miss: Central Arkansas
Kentucky: Youngstown St
Missouri: Abilene Christian
South Carolina: South Carolina St
Tennessee: UT Martin
Alabama: Austin Peay
Mississippi St: East Tennessee St
That's 48 of the 65 P5+ teams that have FCS opponents on the schedule in addition to the Hokies. Every conference does it.
It is true that many teams play weak opponents. The ramifications of an in state ass whooping can be deadly, though. And frankly this program needs a little street cred, even if you lose to a good , tough opponent. Ass whoopings from your little sisters can make you look a little soft. Just saying....
That didn't really matter in 2010 when we lost to a 6-5 FCS team because we won the rest of the year.
2010, about the time we started losing our street cred....
Na, that was 2006, after that we didn't recruit VA very well. 2009 was when we started our terrible roster management of not recruiting recievers.
Don't you mean Richmond playing UVA?
Roll Spide
I'm completely fine going to ODU if we beat that ass by 50+. But even then it shouldn't happen more than once a decade or so. And we definitely shouldn't play them every year, do not need some sort of "rivalry" being established
They should never be a rivalry but once I a decade? They are one of the more ideal teams for us to play along with Marshall, App State, and formerly ECU. They are close which helps keep costs down. When you have 2-3 games against G5 schools every year you need to have options and ODU is as good as any. Playing more than 2 OOC schools in a year would really put VT at a disadvantage, I'd argue until we get back to 8+ wins works against us.
I'm saying we should not travel there more than once a decade. I'm fine playing them every other, or every 2-3 years as long as it's in Lane
you're describing maybe between 3-5 people. i have never heard anyone say this
it's been six months and people are still focused on the old regime
https://247sports.com/Player/Aycen-Stevens-46113883/
3 star 87 rated Athlete from Indianapolis. Older brother played for Pry at Penn State
Same as my other comment - once upon a time, we would have been the obvious choice. Do we read anything into the Pry connection, especially since we're the only non-Midwest school in his top 4?
If it adds any context we literally offered him the night before he released his top schools and only after his older brother sent pry his film. So we were in the mix for like 12 hours prior to this tweet, which shows you how much respect he has for Pry alone without ever having visited Tech or had any real contact with coaches at that point
For a kid from Indiana over Nebraska and "obvious choice" not so sure about that.
https://247sports.com/Player/Rodney-Gallagher-46101185/
4 star 93 rated Athlete (247 97th rated player overall) from Uniontown, PA
Want.
Tyrell Ward to LSU. Chalk it up for another shining example of this NIL stuff overshadowing common sense
3 star OL from North Cross in Roanoke (originally from Germany, and was rated #1 2023). Great name for an OLineman. John Madden would love it.
Hammer on the offense and Payne on the defense. Pry is going for the All-Name Team and to advertise our identity.
Pry's first class has started with a Lance, a Hammer, and an Abbey.
Are we playing football or DND?
Also, all 3 are OL/DL players