Welcome, D' Andre!
I am officially committed to play football at Virginia Tech. I would like to thank all my supporters and give all praise to God #ACC #Hokies— Dandre Plantin (@ERA_of_MOAM56) November 6, 2014
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Comments
Possible OT or DT, 6-5, 277lbs. Sounds like a future TE!
Or QB
Outstanding. Keep em coming!
This means staff is not expecting to get Settle and Whitehead will flip. Not confident about Sweat or Dalton either.
You concluded all this with this signing? Really?
That's not correct at all.
I don't follow.
EDIT: Why did this guy get SO MANY downvotes? Just a guy stating his opinion that happens to be off-base.
Exactly right fellow Hokie.
Pattern the past 2 weeks I think.
He's become a guy just calling for Frank's head.
I did not down vote but he's got a pattern of drivebys going here.
because there's no PT to sell to incoming DL recruits?
Everything I've seen says he's gonna play offense.
Plantin is 6'5". You should gave used your powerful perception skills to deduce that there is no way he plays DT at VT.
He's going to play OL....
Probably treading on thin ice here, but isn't all the down votes for this poster's comment a bit excessive?
The poster gave his opinion. The post did not read as being insulting and as far as I can tell, did seem to stimulate conversation, albeit in a negative direction. His opinion was expressing a worst case scenario, but its just his opinion. I don't necessarily agree with the post, but was it really worthy of 18 down votes?
I thought one of the points of this site was that people are free to express their opinions, so long as they conduct themselves in a respectful manner? Nothing I read in the blurred post seems disrespectful.
agreed. I find Palmetto to be excessively negative in their opinions and reactions to things, but nothing here is offensive and shouldn't be downvoted.
Yep. I hadn't been back to this comment since it was first posted, so I hadn't seen this. Nothing offensive here. Likely off-base and too negative, but come on people.
Gonna play devils advocate here for a sec (Because I'm working a night shift and have nothing better to do). While the post was most likely written as an opinion, it could be read as the poster making a statement of fact based in some insider info.
We know that recruits and recruiting "handlers" are reading this site (go tkp, amiright?). We also know that not all recruits and not all of their support people are keen intellectual minds.
While I think that the safe assumption would be that our D-Line prospects would read this post, like we are, as the fears of a pessimistic and misguided soul; yet the safer play here might be to discourage posts that could be read as claims of lack of confidence on the part of the coaching staff.
A simple, "I think that," or an "IMHO," would fix that little problem and leave no wiggle room for shaitan to play in a recruits mind.
Therefore, I say, "come on back, Palmetto Hokie, and try again! We welcome all opinions here."
Upvote for an honesty, even if I don't agree, even if it comes off as negative.
More than likely he is being recruited as an OT, so all those theories are shot.
This ^^^ Andy Bitter has an article out on him being recruited as an o-lineman, and Searels was his recruiter.
He looks better suited to OT than DT to me from his footage.
Welcome aboard!
I mean absolutely no disrespect by this but, who?
I haven't heard anything about this kid. He doesn't appear to be ranked on 247.
Anyone have some film?
Idk, but I read he had an offer from LOLUVA also, so I'm glad he picked the good guys
He's a 3-star out of Georgia from a very good program.
Highlight tape here.
Rivals 2 star and 247 3 star per the AB article. Highlight reel also.
Remember Luther Maddy was a relatively unknown 2 star. Not saying he'll be that good, but worse case he'll provide quality depth, which we lack (complain about) now. Best case he's Maddy of the OL. Either way a win win. AND did you see he's 270 as a high school senior! Searels is making sure he just has to teach technique, he is not bringing them in to develop physically for 2 plus years...
This. Stars only means how ready they are physically and technique wise. We've been polishing 2 and 3 stars to NFL caliber for years.
Stars are more often than not just a measure of how much interest a kid has gotten from major programs. Luther was a big kid with pretty good technique coming out of high school, but was overlooked during the recruiting process, and so wasn't ranked very highly.
We've also been having 2*'s flame out quickly for years. Stars are about probability.
3* on 247 composite.
My bad, looks like he is being targeted for the Oline. However, Joshua Nijman is getting CB's like crazy for VT and same thing applies. There is a reason they are suddenly going after these 2 stars nobody has heard about until now. If they don't think they will get Settle, Sweat etc go to plan B and take these guys away from Middle Tennessee and Jacksonville State. Hope I am wrong but doubt it.
Nijman is a 4 star who grades out higher tha Austin Clark.
If you should worry, Fred Johnson is a very soft commit and the Kenny Thomas will be tough to get away from MissSt.
And this doesn't gave anything to do with Settle and Sweat. Settle will likely have to prep and has been all over the map so far.....even a commit from him doesn't mean he signs.
4 star according to who? On rivals he has no ranking or stars and only has the lone offer from us.
247 and he has offers from Miami and Temple with more to come I suspect.
They must have just ranked him 4 star. I once the crystal balls started coming in and he had no rating.
Good news though!
They ranked him this week.
This may be behind a paywall, but here's the reasoning behind his ranking.
VT lean earns four star grade
First off Nijman is a 4 star and will likely be an OL if he does commit. And just because the coaching staff is offering these guys doesn't mean they know they aren't going to get Sweat, Dalton, Settle etc. at all.
I just don't know what point you are trying to make.
This in the same week we flip a four star from an SEC school.
I'd hate to see how you react to bad news...
I hear Nijman is going to commit here.
Alex Koma just tweeted some highlights from an interview with Emanuel McGirt. Not sure if he is planning on writing up a quick article but I'll leave his tweets here.
Hokies making serious push for O-line.
OL recruiting has turned around in a hurry. 2 weeks ago, Clark, plantin, Mcgirt and nijman were on the radar.
If McGirt decides he really wants that playing time, our OL is going to be very much set for the future. With the talented interior guys in the program (namely Teller and Gallo), getting a bunch of tackles who could potentially slide inside to guard (which is a much easier transition than the other way around) is exactly what this team needs. Over the next couple years, our line is going to be very young, but this class has the potential to provide a massive talent upgrade over the guys we have now.
And that's not to say we don't have quality young men in the program, but Wang and Farris aren't exactly imposing physical specimens.
If McGirt makes an official visit to NC State this weekend as expected, I would think that he would commit shortly afterwards to State. State's Tackle rotation is just as bad as VTs, and he's made a number of unofficial visits there.
So Gallo is highly regarded?
He's the most physically advanced player from last year's class and has played as a true freshman. If I had to guess, I'd say he's likely our starting center next year.
Maybe Wang is a grow-er and not a show-er?
ALL THE BIG NASTIES
Seems that the worries about our inability to bring in OL recruits with this class might have been a little premature.
It's never too early for NATTs to worry...
NATT, PATT, RATT, "True Hokies", "Real Fans", 'apologists', etc
Please leave the labels off of this website
Oh, stop it. Beside's it's not a label...it's an acronym. It's no more of a "label" than calling people "Hokie fans". And even if it's a label, it's not geared toward anyone in particular...so if someone is offended about it, perhaps they need to take a look in the mirror.
What would you suggest I use to describe those who saw the glass being half empty before all the water had been poured?
Is there a better name for a lineman than Plantin?
Maybe Pancakin?
Just read the 247 breakdown on him (I won't like because it's behind a paysite). The thrust of the article was that he has a higher ceiling than Austin Clark but doesn't play with consistent effort...I'm happy for the commit but I hope he doesn't turn into an OL version of Marcus Davis. He's the type of prospect that can make or break Stacy.
I think practicing with Wyatt Teller everyday will help those with inconsistent effort.
Question: has anyone seen Moorehead post a "choppingwood" tweet lately? Is that something he only does for his recruits or any recruit.... haven't seen it in a while
I think he tries to tweet it before prospects announce, but since guys know he does it, they may ask him not to so they can keep it quiet until they're ready to announce it themselves. That gives them time to call other coaches, prepare a little statement, have a little intrigue/surprise involved, etc. Just my guess. Still, I'd lose it if he dropped one of those on December 4th or this upcoming Wednesday.
I continue to like how we are spreading out our recruiting circle.