On the recruiting front, Nnadi has revealed his top-two schools.
"I want to play college football in my home state. My top-two schools are Virginia and Virginia Tech."
He talked about what stands out to him about the in-state ACC rivals.
"With Virginia, I know a lot of people that are already there and ones that are going there. I love the feel of the campus and it's a great academic school. I have a great relationship with head coach Mike London and the staff.
"My dad is a graduate of Virginia Tech, so I have a good gist of the student side of it all. I spent three days on a visit there at the end of March and I got a good look at the football program. It also allowed for me to get in some good time with the coaches, including head coach Frank Beamer."
There is no timetable for a decision for Nnadi at this time.
"There is no real timetable to decide for me. I know I want to stay in-state and I know the two schools that I will decide between.
"I'm just looking for that feeling that tells me which is definitely the right fit for me. Right now, it's all pretty confusing."
http://247sports.com/Article/Derrick-Nnadi-accepts-US-Army-All-American-...
Comments
His dad is a Hokie?!? We got him.
Just hope he doesn't get a giant gulp of Hoo kool-aid at his high school.
Just ask the Curry's about that. I know that this is football and not basketball and that the logical choice is VT, but he almost sounds like he is leaning towards LOLUVA.
I'm pretty sure that Tech "had" the Curry's, if Greenberg would have just offered.
biggest mistake ever
How do you not just send offers to the children of your school's biggest star ever?
And Seth wonders why Tech fired him. Always keep your famous alums happy. Alston Smith will probably never amount to much but Beamer offered him.
While that is totally true, it's also not totally fair. Frank has 85 scholarships to dish out (for 22+ positions), Seth had 12 (I think?... not as clear on basketball - for 5 positions). You can hide a hard worker, practice squad kind of guy on a football team a lot easier than you can hide the same at the end of your bench in NCAA basketball. That said, the Curry's weren't exactly just practice squad guys in the end. So maybe it speaks to Seth's evaluation skills. But they didn't exactly have killer offer lists, so not too many people projected them correctly.
Only 12 scholarships, but usually at most 10 guys play noteworthy playing time. You can hide a guy on a basketball team if you want. And it's really bad form to not even bother to offer a kid who is the son of your best player when you don't have a great basketball history.
In the case of Stephen, he was offered as a walk-on. Obviously Greenburg got that one wrong, but Stephen declined it because he didn't want to compete with Jamar and Zab, he wanted to play right away and Tech had already signed a freshmen guard that year. From my understanding, because Greenburg only offered the walk-on spot to Stephen, Seth had no shot of coming since his mother basically said screw you to Greenburg.
I think they signed Nigel Munson instead. Also, there is not an emoticon sufficient to express my sadness at the thought of missing out on Stephon Curry because of Nigel Munson.
Yeah, that is who they signed instead. Trust me, that is the same sentiment throughout most of the athletic department. It amazes me on some of the stories that I hear from some of the people around the program or former players/coaches from the Greenburg era.
Here's the thing on both the Curry brothers - while they were both very good high school players, there was a reason that both of them had very few offers coming out of high school. Both were small, thin guys who weren't overly athletic... that doesn't usually bode well on the college level for players becoming high-level performers. There's so many unknowns when it comes to scouting high school basketball talent, it's unfair to make the past seem like huge errors in judgment. While both the Curry brothers were great shooters in high school, does that always translate to the college game where the athletes are better (especially in the ACC conference)? Not necessarily... for all we know, getting passed over by major college programs turned Stephen & Seth players they have become.
Here's my take on the whole situation: I don't fault Greenberg for only offering Stephen a walk-on spot. People are also forgetting Munson's pedigree at the time... he was PG on one of the best teams in the nation (DeMatha) and he actually played pretty well in his one season at VT. Unfortunately, homesickness & April 16th were both factors in his decision to transfer, so there's a million 'what-if' scenarios to go through.
With all that said, there's no reason Greenberg shouldn't have offered a scholarship to Seth. After seeing the player that Stephen became at Davidson (and how he grew 2 inches in college), that should have been an indicator that Seth could have a similar career arc. Of course, we didn't offer him anything other than a walk-on spot either, so he ended up tearing it up at Liberty before transferring to Duke.
As a Liberty Alum, I'm happy to have all the Tech Legacy talent we can get. Grant Bowden was a great punter for us this year, he had a 39.4 avg and 18 of 60 punts were inside the 20. Here's an interview he did during Spring Practice for anyone who is interested.
http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm?PID=10869&NewsID=10682
In Grant's case he actually graduated from VT (was a preferred walk-on I think) and is playing at LU as a Grad Student about to finish his first M.A. and starting his second in the fall.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that Walker and Nnadi both get landed.
Where is that elusive linebacker now?
Sounds like we're in very good standing with Hand, Holmes, and Nnadi. Street loved his visit, but Tech would have to win a huge recruiting battle with Georgia and FSU to secure his services. As much as I'd like to see Brown in orange and maroon, we're probably third on his list behind UVa and UNC. What a wealth of defensive line talent in and around Virginia. If we can land 3 of these kids to go with Vincent Mihota and Xavier Burke, that will be one hell of a class.
I feel like we're currently a close second. I guess he's torn between his dad and his friends. Im sure he's a very confused kid. I hope he comes back for another visit. Id like for him to warm up to us.
Last fall, I went to a lot of Bucky's games to see him play in person and get a feel for his mechanics/potential. When they played Ocean Lakes, my biggest take away was how dominant Nnadi was as a Junior. I dont remember the stats off the top of my head, but he was in their backfield all night. I really hope we land him.
Anyone know if he'll be at the spring game? I doubt it considering he was there in March. It would be great for him to see what a real spring game is.
Don't forget about jalyn Holmes peoples
Shouldn't be too hard of a decision: lose with your buddies and regress as a talent OR go to your pop's alma mater, win while further developing your talents under the best DC in the country, and play on what will be a FILTHY DL?
London will get fired and loluva commits like Nnadi* will decommit and come to us.
*If he commits there
Let UVa's season speak for itself before you start to worry about kids going there.
I'd still be concerned no matter how poorly they play this year. Look at the season they had last year. And 2010. And 2009. And 2008. And then remember they still somehow bring in the recruits.
Well the thing is, London's only been there since 2010 and they actually had a good (for them) season in 2011 going 8-5. London has been able to spark promise and potential because of that year, which has helped him recruiting. They went 4-8 last year and if they do that again, then he won't really have that promise/potential pitch to recruit with. Furthermore, he'll probably get fired if they have a repeat of last year.
I get so nervous during recruiting time...what if we don't land any of these 5 star VA kids...it would be an absolute disaster...even if we signed only one it would be just horrible...we better lock 3 of these kids in or we could see a serious problem in the coming years
There are 3 5* VA kids and we only have a legitimate shot at one of them... We are in decent position with a bunch of the 4*'s though.
What the heck does this mean?
That's not a verbal. There's no way it's his first phone call. I don't understand.
EDIT: Apparently coaches can officially call recruits they've offered.
The active period started Monday, meaning coaches can call recruits. Virginia Tech is just getting after it early.
Um....is it good to call kids at 6:30 AM?
They aren't in college yet, they should be up by that time getting ready for school. I'm sure we aren't the only people calling early.
Oh the days of getting up at 545 am so that you leave for school at 645 and start at 720...
It's funny how your perspective changes from HS to College to Work life. Complain in college about getting up before 9, not remembering you used to get up around 6 for HS. And now I've gotten used to getting up at 5 to go to work in DC.
As someone who has yet to begin the real world, I complain about gettingup before noon.
And if I were a parent (thank god im not) id be upset that recruiters were calling my son that early in the morning
You'd be upset until you realize "Oh yea, my kid will get a free college education from one of the best schools in the country and a chance to play in the NFL. Call on recruiters, call on."
Or you might be happy that they are calling to wake them up to make sure they get to school and pass their classes and qualify.
good point. I guess id only be pissed if uva called that early since theyve turned more nfl potential players into busts than times they've pissed me off calling freshman "first year"
Oh man, my freshman year at Tech, I scheduled a few 9am classes thinking it was no big deal since I was already waking up before 6 to get to class.
I realized my mistake after 1 week.
haha yeah I got screwed over this semester with 4 8am and a 9 on the other day. After that I'm done except for classes at 1, 2 and 4. This semester sucks!
My first semester, I had a hard time getting to noon classes...
You would have had a blast in freshman architecture/design studio then as it was 8-noon MWF. That was probably a positive experience as I never complained about early classes after, and even started to like finishing my classes as early as possible (regular classes after 5:30 PM became my most hated). Still, I did feel a little rage toward the students who only had classes two days a week or never had a class on Friday throughout college.
That was me... never had classes 5 days a week, with either Tuesday and Thursday off or Monday and Friday off, every single semester after freshman year. And freshman year I had Fridays off.
It's taking every once of self-control I possess to not down-vote you right now...
I also worked my ass off in high school and entered college with 25 credit hours from AP and IB tests, so that helped a bunch.
But yeah, I can understand the hate.
Well shoot, I had 12 credits coming out of high school, but I've yet to have even one semester in 4 years (out of 5, thanks to two co-op semesters) where I've had a day off. The classes I need are always offered in just the right time slots so that my schedule turns out to be crap. It's very sad.
the diploma will taste just as sweet, and you will be used to the working world reality.
After three years in mech engineering, I transferred to interior design and didn't have a Friday class during my last three years.
Yeah, I spent over 6 years as a student, even lived in the burg year round, still feel it wasn't enough...