Recruits Say ECU, GT Losses Can Be Excused, But OSU Win Stands Out

When the Hokies drop two winnable games at home, it's easy for the fanbase to start hyperventilating a bit.

Beyond worrying about the obvious implications the East Carolina and Georgia Tech losses have on this season, it's similarly tempting to start fretting about what poor showings could mean to high school recruits.

After all, it can't look good when the Hokies lose in Lane Stadium two straight weeks, especially with big recruits in the house to impress.

Yet a quick survey of a variety of recruits, of all ages, positions and states, shows that the recent losing streak isn't weighing as heavily on their minds as fans might fear.

"Coach Beamer is the winningest coach in college football right now, I know he's going to win some games," said Devante Brooks, a 2016 TE/DE from Washington D.C. "Very few teams go undefeated."

Brooks, a 4-star recruit according to the 247Sports Composite ranking, was in Lane for the loss to the Yellow Jackets, but says it's important to put the game in perspective compared to the whole atmosphere of the campus.

"Every team loses, I try not to let it weigh in on how I feel," Brooks said.

Bryce Love, a 4-star running back from the class of 2015, was also on campus for the GT loss and he echoed that sentiment.

"I'm just focused on the program, and it was a good trip regardless," Love said. "And they did have somewhat a good showing on both offense and defense."

Few players exemplify this attitude of not taking losses too seriously more than 3-star OT Mike Arnold. He committed last weekend, even after watching the Hokies fall in embarrassing fashion to the Jackets.

"Everybody wins and everybody loses," Arnold said. "That's just football."

But Tech's newest commit does admit a loss does have some effect on a visit to a school.

"It definitely affects the players themselves a lot more than anything," said 2015 DE/DT Dee Fullwood. "They're a lot happier at dinner and everything after with a win."

Yet, like Arnold, Fullwood liked what he saw of the Hokies enough to commit days afterward, even de-committing from Kentucky to do so.

"Even if a team does lose, I try to look at how the defense played," Fullwood said. "Other schools lose, I try not to make it a factor."

But it's probably easier to forgive a loss when a recruit is actually on campus, immersed in the atmosphere of Lane and the town of Blacksburg.

Surely, when recruits hear about Tech dropping a pair of games from afar, that has to hurt their perception of the Hokies.

"It doesn't really bother me, I try to give schools a chance based on their upside," said Jalen Elliott, a 2016 athlete that hasn't visited Tech since the season opener. "If I go somewhere, I'd like to think I can make them better with my abilities."

Considering that many of these recruits have to project how the roster and staff will look two or three years down the road when making their decision, it makes more sense to take a longer view of these losses.

"Tech is still a really young program, there's so much youth on the team," said Augie DeBiase, a 2016 quarterback from Jacksonville, Florida. "They had opportunities to watch both games, so I don't look at them any differently after this."

Like Elliott, DeBiase watched the last weeks unfold from elsewhere. But DeBiase is unique in that he was able to see this upside even as he stopped by Alabama's campus for the Tide's game against Florida this weekend.

"More than anything, it's just really cool watching Isaiah Ford, a guy from my town, play so well so fast," DeBiase said. "It's really cool to see him playing right away."

But if this pair of disheartening losses truly doesn't matter to recruits, then what value could a big win really have? As it turns out, victories get thought of very differently.

Take, for example, the Hokies' win over a certain Big Ten team.

"The Ohio State win absolutely does stick out," DeBiase said. "It was cool to see Loeffler's offense succeeding and Michael Brewer doing so well. He's a guy that's similar in size to me, so I feel like I can model myself after him."

While losses against lesser teams can be easily written off, it would seem that the draw of a marquee win over a top-10 team is harder to ignore.

"It just shows what upside Tech has," Elliott said. "You think 'wow, I could be playing in a game like that in a few years.' I've heard recruits saying the ACC is stepping up, and they showed it against a big team, so that helps."

Even if the losses could be a little disappointing, it would seem the team's high point of the season is what really sticks out.

"The losses might affect you a little bit, but once you see what a team's capable of that's what matters," said 2016 RB C.J. Freeman. "That win really surprised me, it shocked the nation. It showed me they could be the David in that David and Goliath situation."

It would seem that, in recruits' minds, it all comes back to upside. It matters less what the Hokies actually accomplish than what they could do in just a few seasons.

"That win let you know that they have a chance to be a great team," Arnold said. "They should be able to do that every game."