Offensive line coach Stacy Searels has some good news to share with everyone.
#VTFab15!!!— stacy searels (@SSearels) September 30, 2014
But wait, he can't say who it is because of archaic NCAA rules. Andy Bitter saves the day.
#Hokies got a 2015 commitment from 6-foot-7, 285-pound Florida OL Fredrick Johnson tonight. 247 ranks him as a 3-star recruit.— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) October 1, 2014
Johnson was offered by the Hokies on September 24th, less than a week ago. He took an official visit to Virginia Tech last weekend.
Nash Williams of Florida HS Football evaluated Johnson at the Football University i350 combine at Oxbridge Academy on March 9th.
Standing in at around 6-foot-6, 285-pounds, Johnson is a monster. He is a ideal left tackle with his athleticism. I was extremely impressed with his long arms and range to keep the opposing defensive linemen at bay. Real good footwork also.
Aaron Perkins of HerdHaven notes that Johnson's senior season is his first year starting.
Comments
Love it! The bigger the better.
(Insert requisite Wang, Fullwood, or Moorehead joke)
We just added a huge Johnson
You're welcome
Nicely done. That one was teed up so nicely and I totally missed it.
I logged in just to upvote this
Wait...people actually log out of TKP?
I usually have to log back in at work every week, I guess because it times out.
Careful, he is choppin wood
Welcome to Hokie Nation, Fredrick! Glad to see we're pulling in some quality guys for the O-line.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This does not suck.
This really, really does not suck
Highlight Tape Here
I'm officially calling this guy "IHOP" for all of the pancakes he's going to make in Blacksburg.
IMHO, he's the biggest steal of this recruiting class. He broke his ankle last year (his junior year, the most critical year for recruiting) so he's didn't camp everywhere (and in turn, doesn't have the recruiting services slobbering all over him). Excellent job by the coaching staff by getting on this guy early.
I'm no French but just took a quick look at the video from Palm Beach Central. He didn't stay low (might have been due partly to stance and his height of course) but kept his feet moving and HE LOOKED REALLY MEAN TO WHOEVER LINED UP ACROSS FROM HIM!!! This kid was finishing blocks and was making sure to push the guy down across from him down to the ground every run play. He looked very athletic out there to me.
247 lists him at 6'8" .. he may have a mild case of Bucky Hodges syndrome
Since you posted that Frederick Johnson is now 7'0".
This is how Bucky feels about this recruiting development:
Oh crap, now they both just grew another inch.
I'm sure we don't need to hear about your Johnson growing another inch.
That sometimes happen after you get Fullwood
Fully dipped with Dork Magic!!
Seriously, that is a tall dude! Gentrification will start as soon as he reaches Blacksburg.
Frederick, welcome to the Hokie nation!
I like the upsides of Frederick Johnson a lot. he's an underrated player because he's just now getting some playing time in HS. Great get by coach Searels and the Hokies.
That is a big kid...
First impression of his tape?
I think he just gave you his first impression.
I think french is at Fullwood right now.
Fully dipped.
(Warning, stream of consciousness post:)
Umm, Searels has a different type than Grimes, fair to say?
It's like Grimes on steroids.
Maybe his plan is to scare the freakin' poo out of the other team when these fellows step off the bus.
Wait, can they even fit on the bus?
We'll have to use this mofo to transport the O-line and Bucky to away games:
Or if the games are too far:
Shoog, you da man.
Searels seems to be what I hoped he'd be. It seems he stresses the basics of kick 'em off the line blocking before that twist your friggin' neck around the other side zone stuff that was Grimes staple. I think they're both good coaches. But Searels seems more Hokie like, more at home with this team. It all hasn't come together yet, but we're going to get there. Hope Searels settles in and stays awhile.
This is a huge (no pun intended!) signing...with the Hokies actually bringing in real offensive lineman out of high school we are going to be seeing a huge difference in the O-line play over the next three years
We're gonna need a taller qb =)
He'll probably be Ford or Durkis's tackle so that should help.
POUND THE ROCK!
Saw Evan Watkins state that we landed him on the same day he picked up a SEC offer. Can anybody find which school offered him?
Florida.
Get Kenny Thomas and call Austin Clark again to see if he's changed his mind. And we're done.
247 ranks him as a 3 star recruit because that's exactly the numbers of stars he can reach by extending his arm.
When she tells you size doesn't matter, just know.... She's lying.
Great pickup!
Nice, 2 down 2 to go. Welcome to Tech big guy.
He wasn't even ranked two days ago. Today he's a three star (which for an OL is almost like a 4* skill player). Tells you how much tail wagging the dog there can be with a some of these ratings...
He's obviously big (but with room to fill out) and looks like he has natural athletic ability to me, but also pretty raw.
He's starting to pick up offers and there wasn't much from his junior season for recruiting analysts to go on (due to an injury). Once a couple B5 programs (VT and Florida in this case) offer an OL, they're likely to get a 3-star ranking.
I hope we can hang onto him. Sounds like he really liked Blacksburg, so I'm optimistic.
I'm sure Urban and Saban have called him already.
Yes and that's why star ratings should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
This rating is based solely on the fact that VT offered and yet folks will quote it like it's gospel when cheering/complaining about VT recruiting rankings, creating expectations/hype for a player, etc., etc.
285 lbs. @ 6'7"? Get him to West End!!!
I say, I say, boy, ya gotta put on some WEIGHT!!! You're FADIN' on me, boy!
Sweet helmet design. That'd look dope on a matte white helmet.
Only if it is extra, extra large!
BAGMAN NO!
Any picture of Foghorn gets a leg from me.
Pic of Foghorn = Leg...... Horn?
Yeah! OLinemen! Welcome to the Hokies, Fredrick!
I love it! Linemen win championships. Great job by the staff.
idk how i haven't noticed your username before, but it's top notch.
In honor of Taken 3 coming to theaters soon
Now if he stays athletic and quick with that size, he is potential NFL all over by the time he is done with Searels and Gentry.
Make it happen, VT!
Johnson's ... they'll get after ya.
Put FDOT on his helmet, he will be paving the way for the offense!!!
Yeah hell yeah nicely done all around. Welcome to to the team, Fredrick
Joe, I need a button to upleg every current post on a thread. Not really. But kinda.
Other teams in the ACC
"Oh no, its FredJo. Watch out!!!"
Imagine Johnson moving to TE for a week and liking it. The ACC and the rest of the NCAA would really be in trouble!
Welcome to Hokie Nation Frederick Johnson, I hope you enjoy your time here at Virginia Tech.
After some doing some research on 247Sports, I believe that we need to recruit more O-linemen for this recruiting class. Here is what I have found:
2006 - Clark Crum (OT), Beau Warren (OG), Aaron Brown (OT)
2007 - William Alvarez (OT), Blake DeChristopher (OT), Ibn Latif (OG), Jaymes Brooks (OG), Collin Carroll (OG)
2008 - Vinston Painter (OT), Nick Becton (OT), Michael Via (OG)
2009 - David Wang (OG), Andrew Miller (OT), Kory Gough (OG)
2010 - Laurence Gibson (OG), Mark Shuman (OT), Matt Arkema (OG), Caleb Farris (OG)
2011 - Jake Goins (OT)
2012 - Augie Conte (OG), Jack Willenbrock (OG), Adam Taraschke (OT)
2013 - Braxton Pfaff (OG), Parker Osterloh (OT), Jonathan McLaughlin (OT)
2014 - Colt Pettit (OG), Billy Ray Mitchell (OG), Eric Gallo (OC)
2015 - Mike Arnold (OT), Tyrell Smith (OG), Fredrick Johnson (OT), ????
As you can see from the data, VT seems to average 3 O-linemen per recruiting class. I would like to see this number increase to 5 O-linemen per recruiting class.
I'm sure I am not the first person on this website who has gone over the recruiting data with respect to our O-linemen. What I find troubling after reviewing the data is that all this time I was under the impression that we were not recruiting any O-linemen under Stinespring and Newsome, but the data shows that we were. In fact, we are averaging the same number of O-line recruits as the Newsome years (from 2006 - 2011).
Isaiah Prince, Mathew Burrell, Kenny Thomas, would be good fit in coach Searels system but they dont seem to be interested.
Thomas is definitely interested, not so sure about the other two though.
Those numbers are 1) understating the number of recruits per year and 2) in one case, incorrect. In reality, VT has been recruiting about 4 OLs per year for the last few years.
For 2013, you're missing Kyle Chung.
You're assuming that recruiting services had the positions correct for players. For instance, Wyatt Teller spent about a minute as a DL at VT. I can't imagine that either the VT staff -- and maybe even Teller himself -- didn't have a pretty good inkling he'd end up as an OL. He sure didn't put up much of a fight and just the other day acknowledged he didn't have the speed for DL. So add a 2013 recruit.
Same thing with Wade Hanson -- although he was a transfer -- he's essentially a 2011 signee. Tyrell Smith was originally a 2014 signee. And they lost Brady Taylor late in the game for 2014. So they actually had 5 guys recruited for 2014, but only 3 made it. You can't really sign an extra [name a position] as insurance without sacrificing a different position somewhere else.
Also, don't forget Alston Smith moving to OL. He may not have started there, but he wasn't going to play DL so does it really matter what position he was "recruited" to play? For all intents and purposes, he is a 2012 OL signee.
Soi if you look at all of this, they signed or have at least 4 OL's on the roster for every recruiting year since 2010 except 2011. While there is safety in numbers I suppose, the key is to get at least 2 starter level players out of each class -- and at least 1 all-conference caliber player. This is really the issue for VT, not in the number of guys they've recruited.
2015 signing day is still 4 months away...
Fair enough and thanks for the corrections. Although I would still prefer more O-line recruits because you never know when:
1) Injuries occur
2) Recruit just doesn't pan out athletically
3) Recruit just doesn't pan out due to off-the-field issues.
And you're right, quality always trumps quantity. Hopefully coach Searels will correctly discern/gauge the talent level of the recruits better than his predecessors.
This year we need 6 OL recruits. We better be going after a # so we can achieve this number with high quality recruits. So the offer list needs to be higher than that for 2015. IMHO
Beamer used to have a rule of thumb, recruit a 2-deep in every two classes. In that case:
DE: Keihn, Hill, Fullwood, Sweat, Gaines, Dalton
DT: Walker, Mihota, Sobczak, Lewis, Whitehead, Settle
MLB: Minor, Lydon
Backer: Edmunds, Dozier
Nickel: Edmunds, Stroman
CB: Reynolds, Johnson, Williamson, Tolliver
FS: Fisher, Alexander
Rov: Reavis, Alleyne
WR: Ford, Phillips, McMillian, Bradshaw, Holland
TE: Burke, Cunningham
RB: Williams, McKenzie, Reid, McClease
QB: Ford, Durkin
OT: Pfaff, Arnold, Johnson, Thomas?
OG: Gallo, Petit, Smith, Mitchell
C: ______, _______
So, I think you are right. Thomas + two more guys are needed.
As a rule of thumb. But the real world doesn't always cooperate. Do you fill a quota at one position even if there really isn't a quality kid that's a good fit and available/interested? The further down the list you go, the less likely it is that a player will work out.
And don't forget, most OL redshirt, so IMO 20-22 OL on the roster (5 classes x 4-4.5 per class) is generally plenty if half of them work out. That's 23-27% of your scholarships at any given time for 21% of your starting positions (incl P & K). If you sign 5 per year, you add another 3 to 5 OL to the roster and that's 30% of your scholarships going to OL's -- a number of whom will have little chance of being a contributor.
The number of OL recruits is not the issue. It's the success rate. 4 or 5 is what most schools sign. It's great if you can sign 5 good ones at the positions you need to fill (and VT does right now with only 19 OL on the roster by my count...too few of whom are tackles) and you've got the room (and VT may not now with a only handful of slots left and several blue chippers at other positions still undecided).
But if not, 4 is fine, IMO.
Gallo will be a center
First game in actual attendance in seven years and I saw this kid with some others sitting 10 or 15 rows in front in section 14. Figured they were recruits visiting. Man, I liked what I saw as he bounded up the steps in a black running suit. Sure looked nimble and rather slim if indeed he's 285. However, not sure if he's the one who caught one of Brewer's out-of-bounds throws in the first half. If he is, I credit my friend for the "commit". Out on the mezzanine at half my friend claims he ran into the apt receiver and complimented him with a "nice catch". The response no less polite than any future Hokie could offer was, "thank you, sir". That kid will go far. My friend for other reasons will be hauling in further recruits in the future. We'll have to look to the skies for the answer to that one.
Go Hokies!