Evan Watkins of 247Sports reports tackle Mike Arnold (Winter Haven, Florida) committed during his official visit this weekend. The 247Sports Composite ranks Arnold as a 3-star prospect. He's Virginia Tech's first offensive line commitment of the 2015 cycle.
Hokieeee! Nation... JUST A SQUAD THING!!!!— _dope'since90's (@mikeselfmade26) September 21, 2014
Alex is working on talking with Arnold to get the details.
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Welcome Mike Arnold! We're glad to have you as a Hokie!
For those who, like me, aren't subscribers to HS recruiting services, he is 6'5" 280 lbs. He's ranked 123rd best OT in the 2015 class, and the 162nd best player in Florida.
Awesome news! Welcome to Hokie Nation, Mike!
Excellent news! Building an o line is how you build an offense. This looks like a good get
Hey, Joe, Rivals shows a Tyrell Smith, OT out of Ashburnham, MA, as a 2015 verbal. What's the story there?
Originally a 2014 recruit, prepping right now and should enroll in January.
Tip o' the cap, sir.
Or should that be tip o' the leg?
thank goodness something good came from this weekend! he looks very promising
We definitely need OLinemen, welcome aboard, Mike!
Hooray!
yyeess, just what we need. Welcome to Hokie Nation!
Shamelessly reposting because I think it's appropriate to this thread topic:
I think if you fix the o-line to the point where they can establish the run and consistently go 50/50 pass/run like Loeffler claims to want, then 2/3 of Brewer's INT's go away - maybe more.
The situational play calls and insistence on a 4-back rotation are a bit confounding (as most seem to agree). But, VT should have (and could have) beaten both ECU and GT - maybe even handily beaten them. And the inability to establish and sustain a running game, in my peonic opinion, was the most significant failure in both losses.
If you can control the ball with balanced offense, it sets up the Hokie D to play man, get aggressive, and force turnovers like it's designed to do. When you can't, it exposes the high-risk, high-reward nature of Foster-ball to big plays.
Saying this makes me Captain Obvious, but I don't think there's much more to it. It's been Frank's achilles heal for over a decade now. He's a defense-minded coach who wants to control the game and win with suffocating defense. But without offensive precision and efficiency (or game changing big plays), the Hokies lose when the opponent makes plays and doesn't beat themselves. Period. No college defense or defensive scheme can reliably control that, especially not one that isn't stocked with future first rounders and blue-chip all-american talent.
Recall: Matt Ryan, Calvin Johnson, Stanford, UCLA, Boise State, ECU, Kansas, etc... and most recently, Justin Thomas.
Frank is still struggling to put a disciplined, efficient, and/or reliably consistent offense on the field. Unfortunately, his time to do so is getting short. Signing talented O-linemen (like Arnold, hopefully), is the last piece of this puzzle. Hopefully Frank can put it all together before his time runs out.
not sure what you mean by a 4 back rotation, only 2 backs had over 2 carries... there is no 4 back rotation, there is a 2 back rotation, with special packages thrown in here and there
there is a 2 back rotation with extremely moronic uses of JC and the jet sweep is soo obvious.. however we did have a couple fake sweeps but the o line didn't block well enough so we couldn't get anything out of them
Offensive line didn't have a terrible day, with one or two exceptions. Conte got pushed back on a short yardage run in the first half... that stood out. But the big 3rd and 1 late in the game, there was enough of a lane that if Williams keeps going straight off the center, he gets the first down. Instead, he cut outside, where Wang had generated some lateral movement but was pushed back a bit. With Rogers leading through on the DT, who Wang had on his inside shoulder, Williams should have gotten the first. But, instead he tried to bounce, and he ran right into all that chaos between Wang and Rogers.
That one was obviously on Williams.
And I'll wait for the film review. I've been wondering how much of our run game has been hampered by missing holes, and there were a couple that I saw this past game.
But it seemed like there were a lot of busts from where I was sitting. I don't think you get that kind of consistent pressure on a QB if the OL is having a good day.
I can't wait for Edmunds to be 100%. He ran with authority, he knows his assignments, and dude -- that crazy looking play where either he went wrong, or Brewer spun wrong for the play-action fake, and Edmunds just destroyed his block assignment was a thing of beauty. You can tell that he wants to be in there.
Edmunds had some nice blocks and runs, but he was the one that busted the blitz pickup on the first Brewer interception. Brewer still should not have thrown it.
I still wonder if Brewer was trying to throw it out of bounds and it drifted left back onto the field. At least that is what I keep telling myself.
The JCC carry and the Ednunds carries. It seems like we keep trying to keep these quasi exotic packages available to keep people happy. Just keep the best players on the field until they get tired. We are just being way too cute.
Edmunds is coming off an injury, they have eased him in here and there, when healthy and 100% does anyone doubt he could be 1 of our top 2 backs? If not, how can you not get him in a play here and there and let him get back into the swing of things?
JCC, I agree, but at least he's only rushed 5 times in the last 3 games, and likely knows more of the playbook than the freshmen do, and that may be why he's in there, idk, and it's hard to speculate
Yes! 6' 5" at 280 he can put some bulk on his frame. The other upside is that we tend to do well with FL kids. :)
He turns 19 next month. Expect him to make an immediate impact next year.
No matter how down I get about these losses, looking at our roster and our list of commits has me giddy about the future.
What don't you see here? O linemen! Just got one today for next year....One! 6-5 280 from FL. 3 star. One they need 10!
We just signed four for 2014 so you should chill
Chiehl?
Yes
I think it's almost even a good thing that Tyrell Smith is technically going to be a 2015 recruit. In case we only get him and Arnold, then at least it's somewhat spaced out. And a year of prep school can only help Smith.
Good point, but I hope we sign 3+ OL this year (in addition to T Smith).
Praise Jeebus!!! An OL commit! Any others still on our board?
That is one. Get the Thomas, and then pull a miracle switcharoo to get another.
Any chance we land a JUCO or two? That would definitely help bolster the OL next year.
Apparently Searels is going after some, but we likely won't know about any until around Signing Day. JUCO recruiting and high school recruiting are two totally different beasts.
Just logged on and THIS news has me pumped!
All I have to say is:
RIGHT, Mr. Arnold!
Oh, yeah! Love those o-linemen!
Is it bad that I already feel too old to understand his Tweet? But this is a great pick up in a spot that we need. Welcome Mike Arnold.
MOAR BIG UGLIES!
Moar recruiticorns all-around!
wisec gets it
Has anyone else noticed where the recruits are committing from? We're branching outside of VA for most of them...
College football is becoming a full on national business, you have to get players from everywhere to grow your brand now. Oh and winning, winning helps with that too...
Very true - but nice to see that we have traction in states that historically we would not normally target.