Virginia Tech confirms running back Chris Mangus is transferring. He's a redshirt sophomore. #Hokies— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) August 4, 2014
Chris Mangus never made much of an impact in Blacksburg, but then again he never had much of an opportunity. Mangus was shuffled between wide receiver and tailback to begin his career at Tech. The most carries he got in a game was 6, that happened twice (Marshall 18 yards, UCLA 26 yards). Instead of being a feature back, Virginia Tech coaches utilized him as a change of pace option, mop up man, or as a threat in the slot. However, he was a highly regarded recruit coming out of Broughton High (Raleigh, North Carolina). He showed off his speed and moves on a 76-yard score against Western Carolina last season.
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With J.C. Coleman, Trey Edmunds, Joel Caleb, the now departed Mangus, Marshawn Williams, Shai McKenzie, and D.J. Reid bunched together on the depth chart, it was only a matter of time before one of the tailbacks on the roster evaluated options elsewhere.
Mangus has the skills to play D-I football, but there's not enough carries to go around in Blacksburg. It's unknown where Mangus will continue his career.
Chris played in all 13 games last season and finished with 26 attempts, 141 yards, and 1 score rushing, as well as, 9 receptions and 72 yards receiving.
Comments
Man I hate to hear that because I loved watching him run in Orange & Maroon.
But I am just thrilled he is going to be moving on to a situation to maximize his potential. To me, Chris has the "it" factor, and was "this" close to breaking through here and starring. I know we didn't see enough of him on the field to make the best analysis, but it just seemed to me that nobody ran the ball with more North-South determination and burst than him.
I can't help but think a lot of casual Tech fans are going to see the numbers he puts up somewhere else and say WTF? How did we let him get away.
Good luck Chris! You'll be missed!
Honestly, I'm kind of relieved. He was never going to get significant carries, and I hate to see wasted potential sitting of the bench.
Agree with everything said above. Hate to see him go because I think he was a solid player, but I certainly understand wanting playing time.
I just hope he doesnt end up somewhere that could potentially bite us.
Our recruiting is stacking up the skill positions this year and next. Since Searels just got here, this year we won't be able to stack up OL recruits, but next year I bet we do. This will become more commonplace in the Hokies near future. I'll bet we see this happen with one QB next summer....
If I was him, I'd go to ECU. He's well suited for that offense.
This was the scenario i referred to above as having potential to bite us (considering we play them for the next 67 years)
It's likely that he would be blocked from going to any team on our schedule in the next 5 years or something.
Which I think is silly. I think it's unfair to the kid, any kid. If a player is good enough to worry about at another school, get him on the field at the current one.
Oh, I agree. Many of the transfer rules are stupid and it's a conversation that is ongoing among student representatives to the NCAA. I've had discussions with some friends who were athletes and the opinion is pretty common among all of them. Why is a coach allowed to leave any school at any time to go elsewhere (obviously there may be contract buyouts) without any sort of NCAA penalty while athletes must sit out a season unless they go down a level of competition? Transfers should be open, but I can also understand coaches wanting to protect trade secrets and not wanting players to share them with direct competition.
That would seemingly rule out his entire home state, save for some of the I-AA schools.
Although, like everyone else I hate to see him go, attrition because of depth is not neccessarily a bad thing. We have a lot of running backs and I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this in the coming years if we keep recruting the way we have been lately.
I enjoyed watching Mangus play. He always seemed to get positive yardage when he had the ball. Would have liked to seen him get more carries but such is life. I'm sure he'll do well whereever he ends up.....as long as it's not someone we play while he's there. Best of luck to him.
If you really want to look at the positives of this, since we have McClease committed for 2015 and we are obviously still recruiting RBs for 2016, this just means we have one more schollie to go to a position of need.
Cant say I'm surprised. Hopefully the staff finds a role for J. Caleb before the same thing happens.
agree...honestly surprised he hasn't left already.
I hate to see him go as well but I understand- to me he was more productive than JC when given the opportunity. Gotta be hard for a HS star to sit on the sidelines. Hope things work out for him- love to see him up the road playing for JMU?
I bet he would light things up in the offensive scheme at ODU.
One positive effect of Mangus leaving is potentially more touches for Caleb. I have always been surprised that he is as far back in the depth chart as he has been.
I really hope we find a way to get Caleb involved more. It looks bad that one of our biggest offensive recruits in the past few years has had a hard time finding the field. Obviously, some players just don't pan out, but we aren't exactly dazzling offensive recruits as it is with our offensive production, so when a highly rated guy comes in and doesn't play a recruit may fear the same fate if he came to Tech. I am not implying that everyone has that mentality but it probably has played a role in the decision making for recruits in the past.
I've never understood why they haven't given Caleb a legitimate amount of carries in a game. Perhaps he's just not panning out. But everytime a question is asked of the coaches referencing Caleb they talk of how much of a great athlete he is and how they just need to figure out a way to get him on the field because it'd be a waste to have on the sidelines. Why is he not even returning kicks or punts at least? Everytime he gets into a game it's for mabye 5 plays and maybe one of those he actually gets the ball. Hopefully they find a spot for him.
Once again, I'll remind everyone that this isn't NCAA '14. The skills don't necessarily translate instantly between "great athlete" and "great football player." He was a quarterback in high school, and while he did run around a bit, he had nowhere near the kind of training and skill development for the position that other players had. He never should have been recruited as a WR, IMO, but now that he's here, he's a young player (still only entering his 3rd year in the program) who seems like he's on the verge of making a name for himself.
EDIT: /sarcastica
Lol I know you meant the video game, I just thought it was funny.
... the video game? I feel like I write that a lot on here.
*EDIT* Not sure if /sarcastica or.... *and insert Frye meme here*
I read it as sarcastica.
I read it as sarcastica too. Sorry I wasn't clear at first, I'm all hopped up on cold medicine
To be fair, I'm all hopped up on being a camp counselor in the last week of the summer. I'm not really sure what's real at this point. Anyways, now that I'm reading it properly, it's funny. Leg for you.
Relevant.
Best wishes to Mangus and I hope he ends his college football career on his terms
Because this is the post that made me notice it - Joe has a last name and isn't just called Joe? Who knew?
Sucks he could not find a place on special teams or something like that. Best of luck to him wherever he ends up. On the plus side, he is a pretty good talent so that much mean our backfield is pretty well stocked right meow amirite?
I am not surprised at all, it was only a matter of time with all the Rb depth we had/have
I always thought that Mangus was the change of pace/scat back that JC is suppossed to be. I fully support Mangus wherever he goes.
I hope he gets a look from Oregon, he would be fantastic in that offense.
Man I'm sorry to see him go as he had so much potential and good hair.
PSSST- it's transferring* Don't mean to nitpick