Back when I was at VT, I was heavily involved in my fraternity. One of the main recruiting tactics we used was "recruiting a wolfpack". If there were 2-3 dudes we wanted to bring in and they happen to already be friends with each other and an additional 6-7 friends, we would just start recruiting everyone as one unit, hoping that A) We like their friends enough to give them bids and B) the bonds of friendships these guys already had would push everyone to pledge as one class.
I was reading an article about Adam McLean and he mentioned he was best friends with Tim Settle and was bros with three VT targets (Matthew Burrell, Darius Fullwood & Marcus Lewis).
I wonder if it'd be in VT's best interest to recruit all five of these bros as one group (since all five of them are legit prospects and hold offers). Since this isn't a thoroughbreds situation where some guys are good enough and some guys aren't, I don't see a problem with it.
I'd love to see the DMV Wolfpack all make it to Blacksburg. Am I just crazy/creepy for thinking about it this way or does anyone else feel the same way?
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I can see the advantages but honestly it's a numbers game. When you're talking about 5 or 6 kids that's a big gamble. If you really only want 2 of them and the other 4 are really not suitable then you've burned a lot of scholarships.
VT has done this before, see Jack Willenbrock for Drew Harris. So far Beamer honored the scholarship despite Harris never arriving and Willenbrock not contributing, so even though in recruitment the strategy worked it turned out to be not such a successful one. Given the numbers games VT needs to play this year to get all the new recruits on board we could see his scholarship getting pulled as well. Just speculation.
Anyone know of any instance where 2 or more legit D1 kids were package together like this?
I think one of the coolest things I have seen was with Ole Miss' recruitment during Hugh Freeze's first year. They were able to quietly package together a whole bunch of disparate kids together with a sold vision of top recruits playing together and starting early. Then managed to have those recruits keep their commitments silent and firm throughout the season. This is also what LOLUVA does with their recruiting, remember they are the new U after all, but Ole Miss actually has good coaches.
Link to the SI story on Freeze's coup:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20130207/hugh-fre...
I agree but I think with all five of them holding offers (and being highly touted recruits), it's clear that all of these bromigos are guys the staff wants unless there's some personal preferences by our staff.
excellent point. Rare circumstance indeed. leg for you
hmmm interesting would like to see us do it
Their 'friends' have to be good enough. I mean how many unhot friends are hot girls allowed to bring to a frat party?
Top players feel like they know eachother already when they get to campus. I remember the instant bond that Kevin Jones and Dlo Hall had - they roomed together freshman year even.
Wait...this isn't what this thread was about?
Change it to Miami and the beach and it sounds like a typical recruiting visit.
Right...i was thinking the same thing. If we can get Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifinakis and Ed Helms. (and the other guy)
then we are in pretty good shape...what a coup!
Cocaine and strippers....oh wait, bad news...they decided to commit to the Hurricanes.
This exact situation occurred a few years ago with the Norfolk Christian guys: Kwontie Moore was a pretty highly regarded recruit so UVA recruited him and three of his teammates. Not saying that his teammates weren't any good, but one of them (Wilfred Wahee) probably wouldn't have gotten an offer otherwise. It's a pretty dangerous game to play because a lot of things can go wrong, the most obvious being that the superstar plays the system to get his friend an offer, then commits elsewhere leaving the school with a recruit they don't really want and a recruit going somewhere out of their league.
We tried this recently with Marquis Williams and Kevin Asante and that did not work out at all. I'm open to trying it again since Settle is elite and the other guys seem solid, but again, it's a very high risk-high reward approach.
EDIT: These guys are all elite players so I say definitely go for it. It would not surprise me one bit, though, if we landed none of them
I saw the title and wondered if this thread would be about flipping NC State and Nevada recruits, to which I would have responded "why?"
Carry on, ladies and gents.