Victor Greene of Spotsylvania's Courtland High School decommitted from the Hokies' 2016 recruiting class Tuesday afternoon.
2016 LB Victor Greene confirms that he just decommitted from the #Hokies. @EvanGWatkins247 first reported the news.— Alex Koma (@AlexKomaVT) December 8, 2015
2016 LB Victor Greene says "things weren't looking good for my future at VT," so he decommited. Says he hasn't heard from #Hokies recently.— Alex Koma (@AlexKomaVT) December 8, 2015
Greene adds that he's interested in "any (schools) that come to me." Isn't sure whether #Hokies could get back in the mix down the line.— Alex Koma (@AlexKomaVT) December 8, 2015
Courtland RB Victor Greene says he's decommitted from #Hokies. Greene was offered by Coastal Carolina today. Wake & Towson interested.— Taft Coghill Jr. (@tcoghilljr) December 8, 2015
Greene said after VT coaches talked to Courtland head coach J.C. Hall he believed #Hokies would pull offer. Greene said he's not upset.— Taft Coghill Jr. (@tcoghilljr) December 8, 2015
#Hokies wanted Greene as a LB but other schools are recruiting him as a RB. Greene rushed for more than 1,500 yards this past season.— Taft Coghill Jr. (@tcoghilljr) December 8, 2015
Victor committed to Virginia Tech on March 20, 2015. For more background on Victor's recruitment, read Alex's interview with Greene and Courtland HS head coach J.C. Hall.
Comments
OLB. Wonder if this is a casualty of Cornell being released.
I think it has to do with the position he wants to play.. RB
That would make sense too.
Based on Alex's interview from last December, Bud spearheaded his recruitment.
I'm guessing Choppin Wood by the JUGGS is right, then. There's zero reason for a defensive recruit to decommit based on the Fuente hire, because unless Cornell was your recruiter, nothing has changed for your playing situation.
Well that's a kick to the recruiting twig n berries
I'm not sure if he even ends up on an FBS roster. This may be a blessing in disguise to open us up for a better prospect. He has no other offers, FBS or FCS, and is a low 3* on 247, 2* on Rivals.
EDIT: With the update on the main article here, it looks like 247 is now reporting that he has an offer from Coastal Carolina. If he ends up with them, I guess he will be on an FBS roster with Coastal moving up to the Sun Belt next year. Still, they just offered him and are his only other offer.
Never understood this commitment to begin with. Is this another Conner Odonnell deal? Not sure why we would have extended an offer that early with no other interest from other schools? Either way best for all. Enjoying this new flurry of activity and offers from CJF and crew!!
Just because a player doesn't/didn't have other offers didn't/doesn't mean they are not any good. Often especially on defense VT would be a kids first big offer. They are/were great talent evaluators.
Maddy and Dadi only had one FBS offer, too
nope.
Luther Maddy had 2 FBS offers, VT and Western Michigan.
meanwhile,
Dadi Nicolas aka Wedley Estime had 5 FBS offers, including 3 P5 offers (VT, Minnesota, Kansas, Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic)
Wasn't Maddy committed elsewhere when he switched to us on signing day?
I believe Dadi was committed elsewhere and Maddy was not committed at that point. Maddy's spot opened up because of Stephone Anthony going to Clemson I think. Alex Koma wrote a fantastic article on them over the summer.
yep I think Nicolas flipped from Minnesota after we offered.
+1 yeah, I believe that you are correct. I knew one of them flipped from another school.
shit well I'm an idiot
It's ok, that false narrative has been parroted a decent bit lately. They were certainly still good examples of under-the-radar recruits that we developed into starters / All-ACC performers.
I believe this came from him attending a camp, since he committed back in May which would have been just after our Junior Days. So we offered him because the coaches liked what they saw in the camp.
My immediate guesses were that he 1a) has seen Fuente reach out to other recruits and hasn't felt the love yet himself or 1b) wants to play rb in college.
If he wanted to play RB it wasn't looking good for him. I mean that is the area that we are stocked at. McMillian, almost got 1000 yards despite not being the primary back for 3 or 4 games. Juice and McKenzie should be healthy and ready to roll.
We also just offered a SMU commit RB
correction...we offered a SMU commit LB.
He plays both offense and defense but 247 insiders seem to think it is an offer for RB. Either way not sure it matters much since Greene can play offense or defense
I am not 100% certain on what VT offered him but I see what SMU offered as:
From PonyPride.com:
Sapulpa (Okla.) linebacker Dae Williams joined SMU's 2016 recruiting class when he committed to the Mustangs on July 17. Not only does he expect to make an impact as a freshman, he wants to do so on both offense and defense.
While SMU offered Williams as a linebacker, some schools did offer him as a running back. He has true two-way potential and already received the green light for having an opportunity on offense as well for the Mustangs.
"I plan on playing linebacker but coach [Chad Morris] actually gave me the option to play on both sides of the ball," Williams said. "So if I have that ability and opportunity then I'll probably play some running back also."
Williams will surely be vying for those extra snaps on offense, but he is focused on his primary objective as a defensive player. Playing running back himself, he has a great understanding of how to stop opposing rushers. He believes his skills and instinct will really fit defensive coordinator Van Malone's system.
Edit: This was meant to be a reply to the above post, my apologies for the mistake.
Juice, McMillian, and McKenzie might be a three headed monster that could work. Worked well for us in 2010 with Williams, Wilson, and Evans (granted sometimes there were injuries and it was more of a two-back rotation)
I realize suggesting a rotation is wildly unpopular with the fanbase given the last few years, but it can be effective when they are all really talented and the offensive line is blocking well.
Should we expect Williams and McKenzie to regain form? Considering what we saw from Shai this year and the reports that Williams reinjured his leg, I'm not so sure we will ever see those two guys in their 2014 form again.
Yup, that ship has sailed. Williams is past his prime and McKenzie has a lot of rust to knock off.
Dang Son, I never thought I would see someone write that a 19 year old is past his prime.
Those knee injuries will get after ya.
It's hard to tell. Some guys come back like it never happened, others are never the same.
You are absolutely correct. I just don't have a lot of hope for ol' Juice. It's sad because I think he's a great kid with a good attitude. Just needs to stay off the hoverboards.
I think it's a safe bet that Shai and Juice both tried to come back too fast, so I wouldn't hold this season against them.
If next year they don't show any semblance of their old selves, then hey.
You forgot McClease. I think it's a fair bet that McKenzie or Williams doesn't ever make it back (perhaps both), but McClease supposedly has the goods.
You're right, I totally forgot about McClease, but I'm excited about him as well, especially if the other two never regain form. It's hard to say though without some serious inside info.
What are basing your bets on? Anything of substance?
Basically just playing the odds.
Shai has had two ACL blowouts and did not look good at all when he came back. I'd have to imagine a knee that's been surgically reconstructed twice probably isn't going to hold up for three more seasons of significant playing time.
Marshawn has struggled to keep his weight down since day one on campus. After this long of a rehab, I'd imagine there's a danger of him having to come a long way back to get into game shape, during which time he's already been eclipsed by McMillian as an established TB1, and will give McClease a fair shot to surpass him in spring practice. Also, Marshawn is more of a power back, and I don't think Fuente runs a lot of power. (I could be wrong, though. I watched exactly 2 quarters of Memphis football this season.)
Between the two of them, I feel odds are we probably won't see both return to form and have anything more than garbage carries. A little more than a hunch since I can articulate the reasoning, but if you're looking for me to point to anything concrete, I don't have any sort of definitive proof.
Jarvis Cooper was his power back and he was impressive. I don't think the weight thing will be as much of a issue with the new staff. I've watched every snap from Memphis this year, and they said on multiple telecasts Cooper was over 250. As long as you can be productive at that weight they'll play you.
For the record, if one of them is going to come back and be productive, my money is on Juice. I think Shai McKenzie is shaping up to be the second coming of George Bell.
Agreed. Without even considering injury history, I'm higher on Marshawn than I am on Shai. My top two RBs for next year are Travon and Marshawn, and I'm hoping Deshawn has the skills he's advertised to have. As I say those three names out loud I think their backfield title should be "On and On and On"
Travon will be the lead back, McClease will the third down change of pace, split out wide screens and jet sweep type back, And if back to form Juice will be the primary backup.
So basically if Shai comes back, we'll be the Triple Mac, while if Marshawn comes back we'll be Tri-Shawn. And if they both come back we'll have no funny names at all
McClease seems well suited for Fuente's offense.
McClease is a stud as anyone who saw him vs #1 D in preseason will tell you
He played against ECU?
I have no problem with a rotation of fairly equally talented backs, I think the main problem this year was that we had one running back performing head and shoulders above the rest, but somehow took what seemed like forever to get the share of carries his production seemed to merit
Running-wise he was doing things the others did not seem capable of, but protection-wise he was still behind, he was still having problems with picking up some of his protections late in the season, I would imagine that's why he didnt see more playing time.
Good luck to the kid, but overall I think it was best for both parties to part ways.
Yep, he will get much more playing time at a smaller school. I wish him the best.
It seems we didn't reach out to him for some time. So i have to think that you're right. He'll fit better at a smaller school where he can make a real impact on the field. I wish the best to him.
Edit. What HokiesFTW123 said^ beat me to it.
Dammit, have you seen him run the rock?!?!?! After the season he had this year, I was excited at the thought of him carrying the ball in Orange and Maroon.
However, the lack of offers may point to grades being a problem, especially if his coach was mentioning to pull the offer.
initial reaction after reading headline: crap, another decommit?
after reading the post and comments: best option for Greene to pursue college RB goal; we're stacked at that position already (Hello, 3 Macs + Williams!)
i wish the young man the best in getting that college RB spot
Is that typical? For a player to suspect a pulled offer after talking with his head coach? I thought at first it was grades, or some kind of off the field trouble? I just caught that as odd...maybe thats normal?
This offer was from the previous regime. I expect Clay Dean to lose his also.
You only have so many slots, and the coach is responsible for building the team out.
We have a ton of scholarships for this class
Just because you have them doesn't mean they need to be wasted.
He and Greene lowest rated of the commits.
Absolutely neither are D1 quality much less ACC quality.
Neither were Kam Chancellor nor Paxton Lynch, at the time they were offered by their respective coaches.
I guess I'll let Fuente be the judge of that. He's got a pretty good record.
Apples and oranges, the current recruiting sites are worlds better than when they first came out. They rank a ton more kids and for the most part rank them accurately.
If you watch Deans or Greene's tape and they stand out at the position they are being recruited at to you, I can't help you.
so, you watched Kam Chancellor's and Paxton Lynch's HS tape?
Kam used to have some HS highlights up on YouTube. As for Paxton no he was a two star QB picked up by a 2 win team.
Hudl now isn't what Hudl was then. Like I said apples and oranges. You can go find plenty of guys rated about the same as Dean that are bigger and have more explosion.
I never really understood the offer for Clay Dean to begin with.
oh well, best of luck to the kid in the future, but i won't lose sleep over this de-commitment. Let Fuente try and get his own guys, and maybe somebody more highly recruited. I like my chances with kids who have multiple D-1 offers, not just 1/us
Dadi Nicolas and Luther Maddy had only us. And Sam Rogers was a walk on with not even an offer from us.
See that's ok... 2-3 players.
That's not the case lately something like 40% of our recruiting class had 1 or less P5 offers. And 10% didn't even have 1 P5 offer.
That's unacceptable for an ACC team.
wow..... 3 players out of how many high school prospects? I get there are diamonds in the rough/go underneath the radar. But for the most part, if a kid doesn't have many offers, it's a reflection on his talent. Sure a coach can coach then up and/or utilize their talent to the fullest, but for the most part, prospects that have more offers mean better talent and skills to build off of.
Every team can find their handful of players that were not recruited or only offer from that team and become something better than anticipated.
Edit: Luther Maddy had way more offers than just us...
and so did Dadi....
I'm so over this narrative. Yes, you are correct; Virginia Tech has had some success in recent history with developing talent that went largely unnoticed by other FBS programs. However, Virginia Tech, a program with a tremendous amount of history and success, should be able to fill out a roster with kids that were highly or at least moderately sought after by other FBS programs. The Dadi Nicolas and Luther Maddy stories are great but they cannot serve as an excuse for a coaching staffs' inability to land more talented high school players.
I think you misinterpret the narrative. The narrative is, if the coach thinks a 2-star is worthy of scholarship spot based on their review, then it makes no difference the rating or number of offers. The coaches has proven the ability to find over-looked talent. You are asking for a different narrative, and yes, VT should be able to pull in more 4-star and 5-star caliber players than they do. But that does NOT preclude nor alter the ability of a coach to offer a 2-star a scholarship offer if worth. It's not an excuse.
Victor Greene may not be worth of a scholarship offer. If it's true that Foster was going to take back the offer, this is a different scenario than Danny Coale, Luther Maddy, etc. However, if Greene was deemed worthy by the staff, then it's NOT an excuse to land more talented players. It's simply their evaluation.
Also, to paraphrase Justin Fuente on his first day, "we're going to do our own evaluation. We're not listening to anyone else."
I guess Fuente did not pay Victor a home visit. Good luck to him in his education & playing career but I have 100% trust in the new staff.
I guess Fuente didn't talk to his mom...