Few people had a better view of the Hokies' disappointing 27-24 loss to Georgia Tech last weekend than Mike Arnold, a senior offensive tackle from Florida's Winter Haven High School.
Even still, Arnold was requisitely impressed by Virginia Tech that he still chose to become the first offensive lineman to join the Hokies' 2015 recruiting class.
"Everybody wins and everybody loses," Arnold said. "That's just football."
Like most spectators in Lane Stadium on Saturday, he saw that the Hokies clearly had opportunities to win, but couldn't make them count.
"I thought they had a great game overall, they just didn't quite take advantages of the chances they had," Arnold said.
The coaching staff has to be very glad Tech's poor showing against the Yellow Jackets didn't scare Arnold away, as they've been recruiting him hard for the better part of the last year and a half.
"I just liked how open the team was, they really came at me with open arms," Arnold said. "The coaches were always great."
Defensive backs coach Torrian Gray was one of Arnold's recruiters, which might seem like an odd choice given his position, but the move actually makes perfect sense.
Gray has worked tirelessly to drill a Virginia Tech pipeline into Florida, and just a year ago, signed Kendrick Holland from Arnold's very own high school.
Yet it was a team effort this time around, with offensive line coach Stacy Searels pitching in early and often.
"I heard from both of them, but mostly Searels," Arnold said. "He said I'd have a chance to play early, and that was a big influence on me."
Given Tech's current dearth of options at tackle, Searels wasn't exaggerating when he made that particular promise.
But some of the players Searels is coaching right now also chipped into the recruiting effort when Arnold stopped by this weekend.
"I got to know a lot of the guys when I was there," Arnold said. "Especially the right tackle, (Jonathan) McLaughlin and the left tackle (Laurence Gibson)."
Yet it seems that Arnold's most lasting impression of Tech will come from the fans.
"The fans there were just crazy, they were crazy hyped for the game," Arnold said.
Now he wants to get a second look at Tech as soon as possible.
"I'd like to take another visit in October," he said.
The fanbase should be excited about the role they played in landing Arnold, given his obvious physical gifts.
The senior stands at 6'5" and 280 pounds, sufficient to earn a 3-star rating from the 247Sports Composite ranking.
But Arnold says his size isn't even his best attribute.
"I think my biggest strength is my speed and ability to come down on blocks," Arnold said.
With the Hokies trotting out a converted defensive tackle out as a backup OT in Wade Hansen, and losing freshman Colt Pettit to season-ending surgery yesterday, the news that a player of Arnold's caliber is joining the team comes at a perfect time.
Arnold's highlights are available on his Hudl.
Comments
Welcome aboard, put on 20 lbs your senior year, show up next summer and you probably have a good chance of cracking the 2 deep next year.
Welcome, Mike, happy to have you.
Linemen win championships.
Mom looks excited too! Always good to have them on board.
And this is why it's important to go games ladies and gentlemen, haha. That's awesome!
No doubt.
Hats off to the fans at the game Saturday.
Y'all looked great on the TV, but apparently were more impressive in person.
This commit's on you.
It was definitely some dedication. This was me at halftime:
And this was me at the end of the game:
He must really like paper airplanes...(ducks)...
Welcome to the Hokies! Remember hard work and effort nowadays is letting true freshman start.
Welcome to Virginia Tech. If you come to a game in October, make it the 23rd against Miami! If you thought the crowd was awesome against GT, the Thursday night games tend to far exceed those...and should be made even more so by the fact we didn't get one last year.
Lane wasn't at capacity, but it certainly got loud. Looking forward to the Thursday night game to see if we can get the seismograph bouncing again!
Earthquake?
celebration gifs! even captures the look on the florida schools faces!
stacy searels can make an ALL-ACC out of Mike Arnold. Glad he is a hokie.
LSU offered Mike Arnold today.
Am I missing something? That link goes to a CT article about Ford playing basketball?
LSU offered a VT commit O lineman. Their O line coach is Jeff Grimes.
That is it.
Arnold not sure if he will even visit LSU.
http://247sports.com/Bolt/LSU-offers-Va-Tech-commit-35101496
What's this sticking out from between my shoulder blades?
Feels like the tip of a spear.
fixed, sorry about that.
No worries, I just wanted to read the news for myself. I hope he sticks, we need hog mollies.
Clark + Plantin + Arnold and maybe, eventually, Nijman, is the best OL group we've brought in in quite some time. Gotta hold on to them for another week+.
Wait. Aren't we overdue on that solar flare thing that shuts down communications all over the world? Now would be a good time.
He picked VT over some other big offers, but LSU is a lot closer to home for him. Hope he sticks.
Nearly the same distance to VT and LSU from his hometown.
This blows my mind. Leg for the geography lesson.
Reading their board puts into perspective how crazy expectations are at other schools (not to mention how terribly fans handle success). Basically, anyone not a 4/5* is bench fodder "for depth" and a sign that coaches are struggling.
There were fans on their message boards who wanted to fire Les Miles to get someone better... Losing breeds negativity and contempt at all schools.
To be fair, Les is battling it out with Lane Kiffin to see who can just stumble into the most success. Few do Les with more than the Mad Hatter.
Oh, I agree, but this was the first year they didn't win 10 games in the past 5 years and they played in a national title only a few years ago. They are pretty early to the panic button, even earlier than VT fans.
That SEC speed will get after ya
Bazinga!