The Hokies have landed their second verbal pledge in as many days. Tonight, it's offensive lineman (guard) Tyrell Smith (6-5, 255 per Andy Bitter) from powerhouse program Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. 247Sports ranks Smith as a 3-star prospect, while Rivals.com rates him as a 2-star recruit.
Verbally committed to play football at Virgina Tech!! #HokieNation— Tyrell Smith (@TyrellSmith76) June 26, 2013
Todderick Hunt of NJ.com wrote a nice feature on Smith last December.
"I'm best at run blocking, especially when we run inside zone plays. When I have to block down on an inside lineman, it's going to be a mismatch for him."
Smith, who claims a 315-pound bench press and 500 pound squat, can't wait to get back to football. Since the season ended, he has been working to improve his body for the rigors of the upcoming season.
"I want to gain about 10 to 15 more pounds," he said. "Once we get back from winter break in January, we're starting lifting with the team. But, I've been lifting since the season ended."
Smith is another camper to earn a scholarship from Tech.
Smith had an excellent camp at Tech on June 2. Held his own against top junior D-linemen such as Shy Tuttle (DT) and Josh Sweat (DE).— TechSideline.com (@TechSideline) June 26, 2013
His highlights are below.
I'm sure French will have thoughts on his film once he's no longer stranded at the airport. Personally, I'm intrigued by Smith's upside. Don Bosco puts him out in space a bunch, whether that's pulling, folding, leading on a screen, and he locates and smothers the defenders well. There are a bunch of plays that show him sealing the tackle or d-end playing across from him, and that's a technique that will serve him well in Grimes' scheme. It's tough to tell from the film, but he looks to have long-ish arms, which will be a benefit to him in pass protection at the next level.
Welcome to HokieNation Tyrell!
Comments
MASHING TIME!
saw this as soon as the music started for that highlight video. immediately giggled.
are we FINALLY starting to get a pipeline with Don Bosco?
Seems that we should have been getting some quality players for a while now considering Greg Toal is a VT alum, but looking back it seems we never really were able to really make a name for ourselves at the DB powerhouse.
Welcome to Hokienation, Tyrell!
I've been saying this for years. With Greg Toal at Don Bosco, there is absolutely NO excuse for not having a pipeline to one of the top HS programs in the nation. None, whatsoever. Glad to see we might be starting to get a foot in the door.
Is this one of Jeff Grimes' recruits?
VTScoop has Cornell Brown as the primary and Grimes as the secondary.
As far as I understand it, all of the offensive lineman offers have been evaluated by Grimes.
He came in behind the eight ball, but he's done a nice job finding 2- and 3-star prospects that are tough and have the potential develop into starters in his scheme. Offensive line is one of the toughest positions to project, and the staff is taking the right approach by trying to bring in a bunch of kids and banking on developing contributors.
I will have to disagree with o-line being hard to project. It takes two things to play OL. Size and the Nasty. Kid has the size, not sure about the Nasty though. The thing that made VT great in the early 2000s was a nasty OL. Jake Grove Nasty. I haven't seen it since.
Further to this, his footwork needs a lot of work on his run blocking. He repeatedly steps with the wrong foot or just stands up and uses his strength to muscle some one out of the hole.
Which is where Grimes & Co. will coach him up.
If you haven't found your Nasty at 17........... you may not ever! You can't coach mean. Football takes mean.
I'd add that real intelligent players excel on the o line too. You show me an angry, country strong guy who has the size and the intelligence and I'll show you an offensive lineman I want on my team.
Nastiness is a definitely a quality you want in an offensive lineman, but I will say that's hard to glean from a highlight film. Although, there aren't many pancake blocks on his film (which may not directly imply nastiness).
To expand upon my original point, these are the rankings Rivals.com gave the first five offensive lineman selected in the last two drafts.
2013 NFL Draft
1/1 Eric Fisher: 2-star
1/2 Luke Joeckel: 4-star
1/4 Lane Johnson: NR (QB 6-2, 202)
1/7 Jonathan Cooper: 3-star
1/10 Chance Warmack: 3-star
2012 NFL Draft
1/4 Matt Kalil: 5-star
1/23 Riley Reiff: 3-star (DE)
1/24 David DeCastro: 3-star
1/27 Kevin Zeitler: 3-star
2/37 Mitchell Schwartz 3-star
Conversely, here are the quarterbacks.
2013 NFL Draft
1/16 E. J. Manuel: 4-star
2/39 Geno Smith: 4-star
3/73 Mike Glennon: 4-star
4/98 Matt Barkley: 5-star
4/110 Ryan Nassib: 2-star
2012 NFL Draft
1/1 Andrew Luck: 4-star
1/2 RG3: 4-star (Mack Brown recruited him as a defensive back. LOL at Mack Brown)
1/8 Ryan Tannehill: 3-star
1/22 Brandon Weeden: NR (predates Rivals.com / minor league baseball)
2/57 Brock Osweiler: 3-star
There are five, 4- and 5-star players for the QBs, while there are just 2 for the offensive linemen. Obviously a more complete analysis would require many more data points, which I don't have the time for. I made my original comment because it seems like more often linemen that weren't highly ranked and were under recruited are being drafted higher. Even my incomplete data supports that a bit.
Think about our two best linemen over the last decade, Grove was rated the No. 20 player in Virginia by The Roanoke Times, and Duane Brown was a 3-star tight end convert.
Across the board recruiting is an inexact science, but to me o-line prospects are way less predictable than other positions.
#RecruitMoreTEs
I think one reason for the disparity here is that a QB's performance relies heavily on a combination of talent and intellect. It's easy to evaluate a kid with a cannon arm when he's throwing 60 yard bombs on target consistently, and when he's making correct reads consistently. However, OL evaluation is much more of a hit and miss thing. You obviously have to have the size and quickness, but a great deal of line play resides in intellect and attitude. Technique can be taught, but you have to have a kid who is capable and willing of instruction. Plus, film is tougher to evaluate due to the visual confusion of line play, especially on film. Attitude sometimes shows up on film, but usually is harder to spot. I think the quality of opponents quite often figures into the difficulty of evaluating linemen as well. I think the talent evaluators almost have to scout the defensive linemen that an O-line player is playing against to scout them properly. This is where camps can really be a huge help in talent evaluation for linemen.
I think quality college linemen have to be developed, which requires spotting a kid with the tools, and coaching them up. Interestingly, we apparently have been pretty good in the evaluation part, just not the coaching-up department.
Duane Brown is a shining example of the last point you just made.
He went on record saying that he never did film study while in college, and also was behind on some simple techniques when he got to the NFL. But, a few years later he is now one of the dominant tackles in the league.
Yup.
So why are O-linemen so hard to project? In comparison, D-linemen are much more predictable but require many of the same talents and techniques as O-linemen (size, speed, quick hands, footwork). The only major difference between O-linemen from DTs and DEs, D-line positions are a less cerebral and more impulsive. But, then, why the difference? Anyone have a clue?
A list of 2013 first round D-linemen to make my point:
2013 NFL Draft
1/3 Dion Jordan: 4-star
1/5 Ezekiel Ansah: NR
1/6 Barkevious Mingo: 4-star
1/13 Sheldon Richardson: 5-star (#4 recruit in the nation)
1/14 Star Lotulelei: 3-star
1/23 Sharrif Floyd : 5-star (#4 recruit in the nation)
1/24 Bjrn Werner: 3-star
1/26 Datone Jones: 4-star
1/28 Sylvester Williams: 3-star
Over 1/2 were 4 or 5 star. Only one was unranked and the rest 3-star.
D-line has one maybe two things to worry about whereas an offensive lineman has to adjust to every front and blitz package that the defense can throw at them and they have to make those changes on the fly every play!!
Coach Grimes tweeted that most of the o line drafted were 3 stars or below. Grimes and the weigh room staff will take these under the radar guys and coach them up to beats. Can't wait
The number 1 draft pick this year was a 2* coming out of high school.
Be good enough in HS, peak in college.
VT + GoT.... We have House Tyrell on our side
I am going to be captain obvious today. Needs to get bigger, needs to develope more technique especially in pass protection. Footwork not great, but he knew to keep them moving. Seems raw, but wouldn't surprize me if this kid turns out to be extremely teachable, seemed to carry out assignments well in the video, getting to the next level. Welcome to Hokie Nation Tryell Smith. Go Hokies
Love the leg drive on Tyrell. Hopefully, he'll be a natural with Grimey. Welcome to HokieNation!
What I've observed over the years is that a lot of OL get by on size alone at the high school level, and then are faced with a steeper development curve in college. Whereas the skill players are the best athletes to begin with and make the transition faster. Ryan Williams was ready to compete at the Div 1 level as a true frosh, prolly.
A great example of an OL with a great pedigree but disappointing first few years is Jon Dunn. He candidly admitted he was used to being the biggest and baddest OL in high school, and he expected it to continue at the next level. He didn't take his S&C program seriously until his R-soph year.
Tyrell is working on Billy Ray now. Via their twitter.
I love these recruits.
Kid is super athletic. He just glides. Sure he's not a DT? If he is actually 6-5- wow.