Indianapolis, Indiana defensive tackle Eric Whitehead signed his national letter of intent with Virginia Tech in February, but it appears he will attend Nassau Community College in New York. Nassau Community College competes in the Region XV Conference as a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
Longer Path, Bumpier Road— Eric Whitehead Jr. (@bms_whitehead) May 21, 2015
Welcome to the family, Virginia Tech Signee DL Eric Whitehead from Indianapolis, IN! #HuntSuccess pic.twitter.com/ZI8vaPkNCe— Nassau CC Football (@NCCLionsFTBL) May 21, 2015
Whitehead gave his verbal committment to the Hokies last May as a birthday present for Virginia Tech defensive line coach Charley Wiles. The Arsenal Technical 3-star product has been a staunch Virginia Tech advocate since.
Me And My Family Had A Ball In Blacksburg #GoHokies #HokieNation pic.twitter.com/BXnCtogK9I— Eric Whitehead Jr. (@bms_whitehead) December 1, 2014
Comments
So does this mean he's no longer coming? or just a delay for now?
good question.. hopefully he is just prepping a year rather than going full-on JUCO. With our depth at DT this may work out OK in the long run (especially if Settle is fully qualified and enrolls this year) by spacing out the incoming DT's a bit.
Someone can correct me on this, but if he's enrolling to play at a JUCO I believe he will spend two years there, then have three years left to play two.
Assuming he only plays one of those years, yes.
He'll still have three to play two. Rule is five years to play four once you've enrolled in college. As far as I know, he can play immediately coming from JUCO but will still have his redshirt year available.
Do JUCOs ever redshirt for non-medical reasons? Seems like they really wouldn't need a development year if they're coming from a decent JUCO conference.
I don't see why they would. Seems like if you're getting a JUCO guy it's someone you expect to play immediately and fill a pressing need in your roster. If you want someone you're OK with developing for a year or two, might as well get a high school kid.
Happened to my cousin, actually.
You are correct. Somehow I badly misread Joe's post.
Oh dang..didn't know he had to be there for 2 years...that sucks...
Correct. I wasn't sure if there was a prep option at that CC, but its pretty clear now he's going in for the 2-year associates degree.
Prep and JUCO are two different things. JUCO means you are a non-qualifier. We would have to accept him after a 2-year stint, both of which count against his eligibility. Most likely, he's goners.
What's the distinction between the two? Does Juco/non-qualifier mean you don't have the grades nor test scores while Prep means a player had one but not the other?
I believe, and I'm probably wrong on this, that prep means that you had the grades to make it through the NCAA Clearinghouse, but not into the school. JUCO usually is if you didn't make it through the Clearinghouse and thus there's a lot more work to do. I could be way off base with that, but that's my understanding.
delay, but, if I remember correctly, he is released from his LOI and is open for recruitment. Doesn't mean he won't still end up at Tech, but not a lock anymore.
Sounds like a delay to get his grades up.
Good luck to him regardless whether or not we ever see him in maroon and orange. Community college sucks, but it's a great way to boost your GPA and save money (although I doubt he has to worry too much about this). Hopefully he can get those grades up and return to the Burg quickly!
His little brother does not look to be enjoying the blacksburg climate in that picture
Well OK but what about our other juco star Harris, Drew?
*ducks*
Class of 2107
Would that maybe be his progeny's progeny's progeny's progeny's progeny?
phuck, he was my pick to be next year's surprise player. He looked plain nasty. Hope we do finally see him in Lane playing for the Hokies.
Surprise!
wow, it was right there... I just lobbed it up
Surprise!!!
Edit. Drink...
don't know if it was mentioned.. i tried to look but since he is going to JUCO does that mean his scholarship is open or we still honoring it? A little confused
The scholarship is open for now, but Tech could sign him in two years when he is on the market again.
If he's wearing another uniform, someone else is paying his tuition.
I highly doubt he makes it to Blacksburg folks....if he prepped that is one thing, but going the JUCO route basically takes him out of the VT mix based on our history with JUCO players. He would have been a possible Maddy type player.
Some extra info for you, courtesy of Whitehead's new coach at Nassau:
I think he might still wind up at Tech. Tech had a glut of defensive lineman and a shortage of scholarships this fall. He was most likely going to redshirt. Now he can get a couple years playing time and come in year 3 when he was most likely to contribute anyway.
If it was a scholarship numbers issue, he would have greyshirted, not JUCO'd.
I'm not implying that he went Juco because of scholarship numbers, but there will be attrition before the fall. This will be one less spot needed. Also it might be valuable playing time the next two years and who can say how many DL VT will have in the pipeline two years from now.
Grades. Vt is much harder to get into now, a lot of these kids don't realize how much 9th n 10th grade count.
Hopefully it works out for him and he can get his VT degree at the end of all of this. Best of luck to him.
I see the headline picture here and I caption it "I'm prolly gonna get screwed by the NCAA this much"
I was equal parts disappointed and excited for him, until I realized that he was not going to JUCO in the Bahamas. Then I was just disappointed.