No clue how to evaluate talent, but the kid seems fast and hard to tackle. Besides, how sweet would it be to have the grandson of a sports legend like Ali as a Hokie.
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I get what you're saying and in a way that would be cool, but recruiting a player because he's sort of famous seems to be counterintuitive to the blue-collar attitude that ideally the whole team is about, not just the D.
And I get what you're saying. But I guess I would counter with this: does a person have to be a no-name to be blue collar in his work ethic? If he is a great player (not saying he is, but for the sake of the argument, let's assume he is) then he didn't get that way because of his name. He got that way through a bit of talent and a ton of hard work. The fact that he is connected to someone famous, in my opinion, is just a positive happenstance.
But legs for your opinion.
Assuming he is, there is also the problem geographically that he's from Nevada, and many schools will be going after him simply because of the fame. Our time recruiting would be better spent elsewhere on other good players, and at other positions. We have a lot of RBs even with health issues.
Legs to you too for the discussion.
Alston Smith says hello.
Fair point, but I see Hokie fame as a little bit different than Hollywood flashy type fame. Bringing in Alston brought in Bruce which is good for recruiting, because he represents what can become of Hokie players and what they can do for a team with hard worker. Doing this helped promote our own culture. However, I see bringing in someone with "Hollywood fame" as someone who creates individual hype that may lead to recruiting of players that are good, but not good for the team or the program, creating a bad culture.
I get what you're saying, in general, but this isn't about Hollywood. The Ali family is simply loaded with athletes. Leila is a boxer, like Muhammed, who was one of the greatest athletes of all time. It's not like some actor's kid feels he "deserves" a spot on the team because "do you know who I am?" If the kid's a good athlete, give him a chance (or at least a fair evaluation by the coaching staff), regardless of his lineage. If he also happens to be in a famous family, great, more eyeballs on VT, and it's on our coaching staff to make sure that he, like everyone, puts in the work necessary to see the field.
That's also a fair argument. However, I'd reference what I said to wildturkey, I think our time would be better spent recruiting elsewhere. There are players that are probably better, and also much closer, with less hype around them.
sorry but this is extremely short sighted. I would be actively recruiting Ali's grandson even if he never got past scout team. Why? because famous people generate donors. You don't need to fill a roster with sons and grandsons of famous people but having a few to stack the deck is just good, sound business. For a school in Southwest Virginia it could only be a positive.
And I completely agree with the above comment that just because he is sort of famous doesn't mean he is absent blue collar mentality. I know some extremely hard working rich people and sons/daughters of wealthy people.
While my response to VTGuitarMan also applies to you, I'd like to try a metaphor for you. Recruiting someone like this, would be like recruiting just the hands of Jarrett Boykin. If you watched VT games on TV while Boykin was playing, there would be at least 5 minutes of coverage, regardless of what was going on saying "DID YOU KNOW THAT BOYKIN WEARS 3XL GLOVES!!! AND THEY ARE TIGHT ON HIM OMG!!!!!!!" (a quote by espn probably)
This created unnecessary hype for the hands of Boykin so much that the right calf of Cody Journell saw what was happening and wanted the fame more than the glory of his team winning. Including making Journell to break into a house for a "drug transaction", pepper spraying a BWW, reportedly sleeping with a Marshall cheerleader and then missing curfew, along with some other things leading to its dismissal.
While this kid could be solid and hard working like the hands of Jarrett Boykin the media hype he would bring could bring back the calf of Journell, and no Hokie wants that.
Not sure you're winning any arguments with that particular metaphor as it doesn't apply to what I am talking about.
In actuality being Ali's grandson in Nevada is beside the point. Where you are being shortsighted is you are only viewing it as being a spot on the roster being filled up and not the cost/benefit of having famous alumni from a business standpoint. In fact, it could be any famous son/daughter, relative, etc that would be a big gain for the athletic program and football program. Donors and administrators respond to the school gaining wider awareness. the wider the network that more ability the school has to generate wealth and spend that wealth on new school facilities or sports programs. That could be huge for a school like Virginia Tech that frankly has very few nationally recognized names.
Wait what? My whole point is that it's not just one roster spot being filled up, but getting many recruits after such a move that would change our blue collar mentality. This is effective from a business standpoint because winning championships is what would help our program out the most right now. I truly believe that a blue collar culture is the only way a team can win a championship honestly. While the flashy "Hollywood" players can go to schools like F$U, anOSU, and most teams in the Swaggy Elitist Conference to get paid and have a chance winning a national championship, wasting time on Hollywood players takes time away from the recruits that we need to be getting, along with also not recruiting the positions we need to be recruiting, like O-linemen as in general o-line men aren't "Hollywood" type players and we can avoid the ones that are easily. You probably disagree with me here but you can convince me otherwise.
Uhh... what? I guess I sometimes forget that we don't have a nationally know coach. Just think if we could get an active coach that has more wins than any other coach in D1 football. If only guys like Dell Curry, MV7, or Eddie Royal be a part of our history. Oh, and could you imagine if we could have a guy like Bruce Smith, you know, the NFL leader in career sacks on our sideline for recruits, that would be insane.
You are the judge and jury on who is blue collar and who isn't? I'll put money down you don't know Ali's grandson or anything about him, so you have zero basis to say he isn't a hard working kid that is trying to excel by all the virtues that you are clamoring for. And by the way, blue collar also means having respect for other hard working people. Just because someone is born into a life of privilege doesn't automatically make them someone that isn't capable of putting in a hard days work. So yeah, I do disagree because your argument is baseless and pure conjecture.
Micheal Vick, Bruce Smith are the names that VT has that transcend sports and no they are nothing near the name of Ali. No one else you mentioned is a household name, and that is not meant as offense to what they have done at VT or in their professional career, it's just a fact. Even Frank Beamer, despite what you might think, is not a nationally recognized name outside of sports. And as proud as I am of Vick getting his life pulled together he's not someone that donors are lining up behind.
But for sake of argument let's say they are all as nationally recognized as you seem to believe, is it so difficult for you to understand that having additional ties to famous sports figures as being a positive? Again shortsighted.
DID YOU READ THE METAPHOR?!? It's a little silly, but you've missed my point. Even though Biaggio could be hardworking, like the way he was represented in the metaphor, I think a move like this could be a plague to the program through no fault of his own by the recruits it would attract and the culture that type of move would create.
You mean like calling someone else names just because they have a different opinion?
A better way to say that the idea is shortsighted, it's less personal and others will be more receptive to your opinion, especially if you back that statement up.
Also, I only named a few famous Hokies (Dell Curry also comes to mind) I could think of, and I disagree with your point about Frank. If someone says name something related to Virginia Tech in any part of the nation Frank Beamer/ Beamerball would be the top answer regardless of if we haven't earned the Beamerball name for all of the season.
As to your final point, we obviously disagree about whose idea is shortsighted, but ultimately I think Biaggio is off our teams recruiting board anyways..
Momma call him Clay, Ima call him Clay.
It had to be done.
LEG! Never thought Id see a Coming To America Meme on TKP. Well Done.
Another kid with celebrity ties is Elijah Holyfield, Evander's son. 2016 RB out of Atlanta, he looks like a beast at 5'11 200 lbs. I'm sure he's SEC bound but it sure wouldn't hurt to throw our hat in the ring.
247 profile
Seems to have good vision, runs through contact and makes good cuts. I notice a lot of those highlights seem to be from one game, which is a bit of a red flag. Also question the tackling the defenses displayed
Couple of questions. First, is there a reason we would be on this kid's radar? And second, who has Nevada in their assigned recruiting territories?