Here are some of the newest VT offers, a quick rundown and HUDL Tapes. Feel free to discuss as per usual.
Format used- Picture (thanks 247), Name, Hudl and Offers.
Mekhi Becton-> Class of 17 from Highland Springs, VA OT 6'7" 345lb 3* 18th player in VA and 67th OT
HUDL Tape
20 Offers- Cincinnati, Iowa State, Michigan State, Missouri, NC State, UNC, Pittsburgh
Brandon Gaddy-> Class of 17 from Virginia Beach, VA Athlete..NO CLUE?? 6'5" 280lbs 3* 34th player in VA and 70th TE
HUDL Tape
16 Offers- Clemson, FSU, Tennessee, Alabama,
Tariq Castro-Fields-> Class of 17 from Upper Marlboro, MD Athlete/CB 6'1" 3* 16th player in MD and 76th ATH.
HUDL Tape
11 Offers- Maryland, Penn State, UNC, VT, Miami, NC State
T.J. Moore-> Class of 17 from Charlotte, NC OT 6'5" 276lbs 4* 6th player in NC and 31st OT .
HUDL Tape
11 Offers- Maryland, NC State, UNC, South Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri
Michael Young -> Class of 17 from Destrehan, LA 5'11" 175lbs 3* WR 31st in LA and 82nd WR
HUDL Tape
18 Offers- Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M, Missouri, UVA
Nana Asiedu-> Class of 18 from North Stafford, VA DE 6'5" 240lbs 247 has him at 4* 93 Grade out
HUDL Tape
10 Offers - Clemson, Duke, ECU, Maryland, NC State, Penn State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Tennessee, UVA
Comments
Can Gaddy and Castro-Fields get their lettuce into helmets though? Impressive flow. But seriously, thanks for putting this together. Hopefully we can keep some momentum going.
Oh man, I like the measurements on Asiedu. Looks like he could add 20 lbs and still play lean. I especially like that the picture of him was taken in the Beamer Barn.
What position would Gaddy play? 6'5" 280 lbs TE? Not in Fuente's system. I know its a common joke, but with his size and if he has the athleticism to play TE at the high school level, he has OL written all over him.
Who is responsible for the resurgence in the Kid 'n Play high top fade?
Mekhi Becton <- Any relation to Nick Becton?
No.
Recruit their mothers! More free time for them since they won't have to cook for these guys.
Some nice targets here!
Laborn just released his top 8. No surprises here but we'll see if he narrows it down any more before his June 3rd decision date.
Dude has some hella strong photoshop game.
Damn right. That's a heckuva list, too.
judging by the percentage of the logo showing, he's anOSU lock, with Auburn as a close second. Doesn't look too promising for the good guys...#analysis
I feel bad for UF. They're hanging around his butt.
Naw, he's a poker player, playing his cards close and hiding his hand. We're a lock!
Oh gosh, I hope it comes down between us and FSU or Tenn /s
Not often that I look at a list of eight and figure we're in the bottom two as far as football programs.
These don't make any sense. Maybe that means everyone will forget about them and we can get them both...and make them our quarterbacks
This thread just makes me feel old and sad. All of these kids are as young as my youngest... with the exception of the 2018 grad; he's even younger.
#emptynestingisntgoingtobeeasyforme
three months after leonard's kids are all gone
Added some new offers out this past week or so...
Harrison Hand-> Class of 17, 3* CB from Cherry Hill, NJ doesn't have a complete HUDL so not posted.
Jonathan Taylor-> Class of 17 3* RB from Salem, NJ "Verbally Committed" to Rutgers
HUDL Tape
Carter Warren-> Class of 17 3* verge of 4* OT Paterson, NJ
HUDL Tape
Xavier Thomas-> Class of 18 5* DE Florence, SC.. BIG BOY BATTLE HERE (Clemson, Bama, FSU OSU, all of SEC)
HUDL Tape
Yea I hadn't heard about Warren until I saw we got a CB for him this morning
Awesome news. I hope that crystal ball is accurate.
Cause they are always sooo reliable in the past.
via GIPHY
Seriously. We have been picking up more CB's for Hunter over the past week or two and if anything it's giving me less confidence of landing him.
Yeah, but three strikes in a row is a turkey!!
In Hunter's case, I hope he makes a quick decision for VT. I believe it would be a good recruiting aid for others to come on board.
He plans to make his decision on June 3rd so we'll see soon enough.Edit: So I mixed up my recruits. Laborn was supposed to be making his decision on June 3rd. Hunter does not have a timetable yet.
Could be wrong, but I don't believe Hunter has planned a decision date yet. I think Laborn planned to announce June 1st, but that could be up in the air.
Whoops, yea that was my fault. Laborn was supposed to be the 3rd.
+1
"So I mixed up my recruits. Laborn was supposed to be making his decision on June 3rd. Hunter does not have a timetable yet"
Sooo...the star recruit that favors us is going to wait and just maybe be swayed elsewhere.
And the guy that might like us better if he holds on until he sees our new offense, is NOT going to wait.
I'm actually moving tomorrow from North Carolina to Chesapeake this week and out of curiosity I checked to see how far my new place is from Indian River High School. It's less than 2 miles. PAGING PETEBUDDYWILSON... we have a code MAROON! I repeat, we have a code MAROON. Send Hardee's coupons my way ASAP.
this should work right?
Xavier Thomas to Clemson makes all the sense in the world. Whether by luck or what have you, they have put a ridiculous number of defensive ends in the NFL dating back to like 05 or 06. The odd surplus of highly rated DE recruits in SC has probably led to some of this, but it's also spanned over 3 or 4 DC's. Would love to land him though, but you won't see me getting my hopes up.
Becton is getting some big-time offers
Khalan Laborn delayed his decision date.
Considering he seems to be headed to FSU, it feels like this is good for us
Any thing that potentially lets us show off our new offense prior to his decision will help us. Still may not be enough.
Any idea how long it's been delayed?
Word is his Dad is pushing UNC (Laborn is currently living in NC). Some believe we're running a solid 3rd right now.
At UNC you don't have school to act as a distraction from football.
Cardale Jones put it best......
Ugh I would rather him go to the Criminoles than UNCheat
It's not.
Don't mind this guy, he's just of those weird people who don't get their hopes up. /s
Oh I'm not getting my hopes up either. It's not so much that it's "good for us" as it is not bad for us
As soon as he moved to NC, our probability decreased significantly.
Hes been a FSU lock for months. Our probability was already 0%. Even if UNC is ahead of us now, just opening up his recruiting away from FSU is good for us
Yeah, this delay means that instead of finishing 2nd, we'll finish 3rd or 4th.
If you're not first, you're last.
I sure hope we don't finish 3rd or 4th. I absolutely love the thrill ride that comes along with the "it's down to VT and some former national champion" scenarios.
Nice spot!
I must be an old meanies or something, but I just couldn't help but laugh when I saw that video.
it's the leg popping up at the end that pushes me from "that's kind of funny" to laughing outloud and disturbing my cubicle neighbors.
She was "sticking" the landing!
I think she is from the Soviet Russia team, where the landing stick you.
It's not good for VT. It's never good for VT.
What are our current areas of need for '17?
With Fuente lots of WRs. We didn't take a RB in '16 so definitely a RB. Still thin at DE even with young talent. LB is thin too. There really isn't a position we don't need, safeties probably.
Interesting. Should be interesting to see how recruiting shapes up over
the next year.
DE, OT, LB, CB, WR would be my order with the first 3 all being critical. WR at least we brought in 3 solid prospects last class and hoping that ladler pans out at corner.
Not disagreeing, just curious;
Why OT?, I thought we were better at that spot.
you can never have too many offensive linemen...my understanding is that it's best to recruit OTs and if they don't have the speed etc for the college game they can always move to guard.
I would also say that part of the reason we are considered better is because of demetri moore who only has two years of playing left. most of the guys we have (and a lot of young o-linemen in general) are guys whose skills are deemed as projects that you aren't sure if they will work out
no no no no no. The best strategy with OL is to recruit athletic TEs. If they don't work out on the line, you can always move them to WR or QB /s
I always noticed that by far most OL recruits are labeled as OT's and not OG's anyways. I guess if an OL has the skills to play at the next level then they will certainly have the athleticism to play OT at the high school level even if they are already 300+ pounds.
Lose 1 starter after this year. Have Nijman penciled in as a possible starter, but he missed the spring and needs the development time and is already undersized. Who else do we have? Moore was brought in as a JUCO, but I see him as a guard. I guess osterloh is the top backup at RT or could potentially start over Nijman. We brought in several kids last class, but don't see any that are coming in and immediately contributing at the position.
Nijman undersized? He's now listed at 298lbs - with room to grow. And he's been adding 2 or 3 lbs a month over the last year or so...
He was playing at 270 something last year, so kudos to him if that's true. He's still extremely raw no matter how high his upside is and missed spring due to injury which would have been important time for him to continue learning the position.
I wouldn't call him "extremely" raw either. He acquitted himself better than 90% of true frosh at Left Tackle last year - both physically and mentally. Particularly for a guy with little experience at the position.
Is he a finished product? No. But I wouldn't call him extremely raw.
Not sure how in the world you came up with that number, but he is extremely raw. He didn't even want to play OT and came here to play DE.
He played last year. 90% (or more) incoming OLine freshman redshirt
he also prepped a year, which i'm not going to make up statistics on, but isn't the majority.
What does the position he had delusions of grandeur of playing have to do with anything?
As for my numbers, how many true frosh at power 5 programs played as many significant minutes at OT as Nijman last yr? I'll wager it's a small number and I'll guarantee you that at VT over the last 20 yrs it's < 1 in 10.
Extremely raw is hyperbole. Period. A work in progress - and ahead of schedule - is more accurate.
I don't know how many snaps Nijman played but this seems relevant to the discussion.
This would include Clemson's 5 star Mitch Hyatt, who started all year and didn't draw ire from fans, for comparison.
Again, he prepped a year so comparing him to other true freshmen out of HS is absurd to me. Also, just because our OT depth was so horrible that we had a d3 transfer starting at RT out of necessity and had to play Yosh doesn't mean it was because he was that good. I'm as hopeful as anyone that he goes on to be a NFL caliber OT, but there are plenty of capable OTs out there that could have played but their teams had the luxury of not needing to.
J McLaughlin is another example of a kid that prepped and came right in and started at LT. He played admirably, but was forced due to our recruiting misses and depth.
What's your point? Nijman played more snaps than 90% of all frosh OT's - prep, redshirt or true.
For an undersized OT, Nijman acquired himself reasonably well at times and not as well at other times. But most frosh would get destroyed at OT - both from a physical and mental standpoint. If you want extremely raw, look at those other frosh. Otherwise calling a frosh OT "extremely" raw is like calling water wet because they must all be extremely raw.
So let me get this straight. Because Yosh played snaps because our depth was so horrid that we had to play him that puts him ahead of the other 90% of all frosh OT's because their teams didn't have to play them? Is that really what you are trying to say? It's not as if he got a ton of snaps either and he only had to beat out a D3 transfer DT to get the snaps.
Yosh is extremely raw. He was getting by on his athleticism which is definitely well above average if not close to elite for an OT.
Can't go two cycles without taking a RB
RB is a position that younger kids can come in and contribute immediately. We're still relatively young there when our penciled in starters are r-so's and mcclease is back there as a r-fr. Would be nice to land one for sure, but I don't think it's as dire as some of the other spots.
That's how you get caught with no depth and JC Coleman as your best back for a few years until you restock
which has already happened at those other positions. We do sit well with 2 of the best backs on the each coast in '18, but I think the same thing will happen with slade that we see happening with laborn.
to me games are won in the trenches and outside of DT we haven't recruited well there at all recently. we've brought in plenty of "athletes" that could technically be serviceable as RBs if need be.
I get that. But there's no need to skip two classes at any position.
To be fair, Coleman was expected to be 1000 yd rusher. We weren't stuck with a walk-on, or barely recruited RB. We were stuck with a 4-star back that didn't pan out.
I think it's better to say "that's how you get Michael Holmes as your starting RB." A capable offensive line and proper utilization would have led to Coleman being more successful. We should have used him similar to how Smoke Mizzell is used as a short pass, catch and run back. His biggest problem was pass protection and an inconsistent line.
This. We improperly utilized him, but even when we actually featured him the last few games of 2014 with our offense as is, he actually had one of the most productive stretches by a tailback we've had since David Wilson until Travon broke out.
Which further proves the point. Can't have all your eggs in one basket like that in recruiting.
This RB from Graham HS in Bluefield should be getting some attention IMO. Level of competition is clearly not great but the kid has "it" if you know what I mean. Great feet, great vision and most importantly, he runs tough, even blocks for others. Originally from NC, my people up that way say he's the best player in the area since Ahmad Bradshaw.
Jamorya Cousin JR highlights
More top 100 future NFL draft picks at every position. Same as every other year.
Talent.
In less depressing, "not bad news about 757 blue chip prospects who we will likely lose to other schools" news, a Bleacher Report guy fired off a tweet (that TKP twitter retweeted) confirming, in his opinion, that current Tech commit Kalil Pimpleton would be higher rated if not for his diminutive stature.
I'd rather have a great small guy than an average big guy. Maybe at some point in the future we can draw the great big guys.
His moves are something else. Seems to have a natural ability with the ball.
More video on Pimpleton.
Lord, please don't let us lose this guy!
Don't retweet the video. We must keep him secret!
If it's from Bleacher Report then it must be solid. God knows, it's not as though any random barstool sports sage with a laptop and an internet connection can contribute their insight there...
Man he's quick!
4-Star LB Ellis Brooks from Richmond decommitted from Duke. Any chance VT is on his radar?
We are, along with a few others.
Can certain LB's play as true freshman?
Guerry signal is up.
Caleb Farley is who he is referring to
I'm not sure that means a recruit. Doubt it.
#statement17 is the signal a verbal commitment has come in when Guerry tweets it.
Maybe, but I believe he uses for other things as well. Check his account.
Please make sure to properly use the reply button, otherwise things are going to get really confusing in a hurry.
I usually do, my mistake.
UVA blows.
And fuck Matty Ice.
We are in Vilain's top 3. Michigan is trending big time
Good that UNC hasn't locked down the Episcopal pipeline like it was looking to be
Big that he didn't commit to Michigan on his visit there. If we can get him back on campus, we'll have a shot.
I think there is a machine that recruits input in the school that offered them and it spits out a tweet + photos.
"Blessed to receive my _th offer from __________." [insert the first couple images from Google Images]
Here's our live feed:
Tweets about "blessed to receive" AND "Virginia Tech"
*waits for comments about how this guy is "a good one" because he used the right name, while others gripe about how more recruits don't know to correctly tweet the school's name*
Followed by a corny joke about grammar and syntax relating to a school offering a recruit 18 times.
Followed by obligatory and always contextually appropriate "UVA Sucks"
Followed by a post about how stars don't matter.
Followed by a post about how stars matter.
Followed by in depth commentary on emoji usage.
Followed by citing a bad school like Maryland getting 5 star recruits so we should too.
Followed by the obligatory and not funny TE to QB or QB to TE joke. ha ha
Rinse and Repeat!
Followed by unrelated EmmaWatsonDancing.gif
Followed by disingenuous moderator "Stay on topic, you @$$holes!"
Followed by moderator engaging in GIF war, pun thread, or whatever tangent is going on.
Followed by beating a dead horse gif and asking for Horseonatreadmill's response
I think that's like 95% of The Key Play in a comment thread. Plus Frank eating milkshakes.
Followed by disgruntled commenter hoping for news relevant to the post, but finding a lengthy tangent instead.
*bumps thread about Houshun Gaines and Adonis Alexander with irrelevant tangent material while people expecting news on the situation have panic attacks when they see it bumped*
Followed by a witty retort regarding my sadness for seeing that gif again
Followed by a new recruiting thread in 8 days!? YAYE!!!!!!!!!!!
One mistake...
"Blessed to receive my _th offer from the University of ___________ (or __________ University." [insert the first couple images from Google Images]
"University of Virginia Tech" or "Virginia Tech University"
Exactly...
Are there any 4's or 5's y'all think we have a good shot at?
devon hunter seems to be the best shot, but appears to be head to head against Clemson. No 5*s this cycle unless hunter was to get a bump.
Hunter has publicly named us the favorite.
Rumors are a commitment (in general) may be on the horizon this summer
I mean I know 247 has us trending (which means nothing to me) but did he really say himself that we're his favorite?
believe he was quoted saying that, yes. If he had made the spring game would have felt a lot better.
Does anyone else support starting another May recruiting thread? Personally, this one has been exhausted imo. I get excited to see new posts on threads, only to be disappointed with circular/endless discussion/arguments.
fantastic idea. I bet someone will do this in about a week.
Another new thread, for the last 7 days of the month? Just hang in there. June is around the corner.
Welcome to the offseason. Any big news (substantial offer, commit, etc) will get a dedicated thread. These catch-all, monthly threads are intended for conversation, rumors, highlights, camp showings, etc.
These catch-all, monthly threads are intended for conversation, rumors, highlights, camp showings, etc.
I completely agree with you! That's exactly what I'm looking for, but this thread has had none of that over the last week.
If the tangents and sub-threads are uninteresting to you, there is a collapse feature that you should utilize. When the page loads it will be obvious that there's nothing for you to spend your time on. But there is certainly zero need to spam the tracker with a new thread that will cover 7 days of likely minimal, if any, news. This is how most of the catch-all threads end. Some random tangent when people get bored.
To play a little Keshi's advocate, I think this is why there have been requests to have a 'block thread from appearing in the tracker for me' feature. Sometimes I'll head to a thread expecting to see an update about the thread topic, only to discover that the topic is no longer being discussed. In those cases, I've occasionally wanted to not even bother with seeing the topic.
This thread doesn't bother me much, since, you know, offseason, but I'm looking at the active discussions on the sidebar and I know I won't ever click on the Captain America thread and won't look at the Game of Thrones thread. Not a big deal not to click on them, but I'd rather get a little more signal and a little less noise.
You're acting like a we started a really long comment tangent making fun of how we always end up with long comment tangents... ugh
I have a feeling you're about to get that new thread you wanted.
EDIT: BOOM
4* OT Caleb Chandler has us in his current top group and will be taking a visit soon
3* WR/CB Sean Savoy Is loving VT and we're trending for him
Several other names have popped up and there are a few 4*s we have a legit shot at
They must have some pretty decent players in Ga.
247 has Chandler as a .90 4* and he's rated the 29th best player in the state.
Damn!
If I remember correct, Georgia is definitely top 5, but I think 3rd in producing talented recruits behind Texas and California.
4th. florida is in the top 3 with texas and cali.
Check the top 250 recruits... Florida by and large every year produces the most. Mostly skill position players (wr, rb,cb).
2 SC DE recruits from the high school I went to.
2019 Zacch PIckens with 7 big time offers
2018 Stephon Wynn with 20+ big time offers
Long way to go for both of them but Clemson has a stranglehold on local high schools.
Latest 2018 offers out of VT:
4* and 3* DTs (respectively) Dante and Darius Stills
4* Pro-QB Artur Sitkowski
Looks like he's going to Michigan. Hope he gets some playing time and doesn't sitkowski the bench for 5 years.
He's class of 18 we have plenty of time to push for him.
Fuente has the resume of sending QBs to the pros he may be able to have a solid shot at him considering the VASTLY improved recruiting VT is conducting right now
To emphasize how far off this is, consider that by the time he needs to make a decision, we would have exhausted Jerod Evans' eligibility, which hopefully (crossing fingers, knocking on wood) could mean yet another Fuente qb in the league.
How many "pro style" QBs has he developed? And what metric are you using to measure recruiting improvement? Little early flor me to say that.
Sent 2 QBs to the league that most people never heard of until they were basically there that's formidable.
More life, more response from kids that we're in contact. More visits, new facilities, buzzing around coaches, the coaches travel and are building relationships.
The effort is there I'm not speaking of results but from what I've been reading we have no reason to not believe things will change
And Jim Harbaugh and Michigan don't...
Here is my favorite Harbaugh fact:
Andrew Luck? Michigan QB's? Was this /s
Just curious but what would you consider vastly improved about recruiting other than the effort thus far?