Unfortunately there are no new commits to report from the last month, but we are in the mix for a lot of great recruits. As a reminder, this is meant to be a realistic list of who we might be able to land based on perceived interest (warm on 247, Crystal Ball leader, in the top group, recent visit, etc.). The list goes name, position, 247 composite ranking, 247 composite score, notes.
Current Commits:
Chamarri Conner.....S..........3......0.8834
DeJuan Ellis................QB......3......0.8770
Quincy Patterson....QB......3......0.8596
Bryce Thompson....ATH....3......0.8577
Nasir Peoples............S..........3......0.8316
Wishlist:
Ronnie Walker..................RB..............4.......0.9040......UVA recruit, 4/1 visit
Mychale Salahuddin.....RB..............3.......0.8738......in his top 3
Dillon Spalding.................WR............4.......0.9047.......6'2", 4/1 visit, CB leader
Armani Chatman............WR.............3.......0.8850......757
James Mitchell................WR/TE.....3.......0.8856......6'4", 4/8 visit, CB leader
Kyle Pitts..............................TE...............3.......0.8704.......6'5", 4/1 visit, CB leader
James Ohonba................OT...............4.......0.9030.....GA
Antwan Reed....................OT...............3.......0.8892......Pimp's HS
Aidan Rafferty..................OT...............3.......0.8639......DC, CB leader
John Harris........................OG..............3.......0.8366......GA, 4/7 visit, CB leader
Chris Collins......................DE...............3.......0.8496......Richmond, VA
Eli Adams............................DE...........UR.............................not yet offered
Alim McNeill..............DE/DT..............4.......0.9104........6'3" 270
Jamarcus Chatman.......DT..............3.......0.8852.......in top 10
Dax Hollifield......................ILB............4.......0.9513.........CB leader
Keshon Artis.......................ILB............3.......0.8857.........757
Payton Wilson.................OLB............4.......0.9550........in top 4, 4/8 visit, commits 5/1
DJ Crossen.........................CB.............3.......0.8789........6'2", 4/12 visit, CB leader
Nate Thompson..............CB.............3.......0.8711...........6'2", Duke in lead as of 3/25
Rayshad Williams............CB.............3.......0.8466.......6'4", in top 2 (Tenn), 4/8 visit
Tre Turner..........................ATH............4.......0.9355........6'4", 4/11 visit, CB leader
Dyami Brown..................ATH.............4......0.9174..........in the lead as of 3/25, CB leader
Trent Pennix....................ATH.............3.......0.8444.......in the lead, 4/1 visit
Others to Watch:
Jamal Elliot...................................RB................4.....0.9167......in top 3 (Ore & Tenn) 4/8 visit
Jalynn Sykes................................RB................3.....0.8563.....in top 4
Malcolm Davidson...................RB............UR..........................in top 3, 4.44 40
Daniel George.............................WR..............4.....0.9306.....PSU lean
Shaquon Anderson-Butts...WR..............4.....0.8926.....PSU lean
Darryle Simmons.......................WR..............3.....0.8819......in top 6, 3/25 visit
Nigel Fitzgerald..........................WR/TE......3.....0.8066....not yet offered, 6'5" 210
Tyree Henry..................................WR/TE...UR.........................6'5" 225, 4/1 visit
Rasheed Walker.........................OT................4.....0.9195.....MD/PSU lean
Jordan McFadden....................OT............UR..........................in top 12
KJ Henry.........................................DE...............5.....0.9866.....in top 10
John Morgan...............................DE................3....0.8527......PSU lean
Rick Sandidge.............................DT................4....0.9648.....USCe lean
Charles Johnson.......................DT................4....0.9064.....not yet offered (grades)
Dante Stills...................................DT................4....0.8916.......WV, in top 6
Cam Goode..................................DT................3....0.8422......DC, 5'11" 322 lbs, 4/1 visit
Jalen Alexander.........................DT................3....0.8127........757
Joe Kane........................................DT............UR..........................4/1, 4/22 visit
Alan Tisdale...............................OLB...............4.....0.9117........leader as of 3/25
Noah Boykin................................CB................3.....0.8704.....DC
Donte Burton..............................CB................3....0.8455.....de-committed from UNC 4/13, 4/1 visit
Telly Plummer.............................CB.................3....0.8066
Tyrese Ross....................................S..................3....0.8416
Raymond Boone.....................ATH............UR
If we ended up landing everyone on the wishlist that would be 28 commits with our composite average score being 0.8831 (compared to 0.8614 last year), likely enough for a top 20 finish.
Lastly, I did a position breakdown based on how recruiting looks at this point:
In a Good Place:
QB and S. We have two QBs committed. Patterson is a mid-3* but is getting a lot of exposure, getting invited to the Elite11 Finals. I wouldn't be surprised to see his recruiting/ranking shoot up over the next year. Don't hear a lot about Ellis, though he is the higher rated of the two. Shorter, but really athletic. I wonder if our QB depth keeps Jackson, Hooker, and Patterson over the next couple years if Ellis would get moved to the slot, he seems to be a playmaker. Safety we have Conner, who I think will end up being really good, and Peoples and possibly Watts.
Good Options, Just need to land some:
RB, WR/TE, LB, CB
I think we're in a great place with WR/TE being in the lead for recruits like Spalding, Turner, Brown, Chatman, Pitts, and Mitchell, and are in the mix for some others. For LB if I had to predict I would say we land Hollifiled and Artis, and would be in a great position if we did. For RB and CB there are a lot of solid options though it's less clear who we may actually land. My "money" is on RB Trent Pinnex and CB DJ Crossen, but we definitely need some more (especially at CB).
Biggest Concern:
DL, OL
I am most concerned about DL. We aren't in the lead for any DEs it seems. Though we got some decent DEs last year I would love to sign at least 1 quality DE. There are more options we are in the mix for at DT, though I don't know if I see us landing a big time DT that we would all love to see. I think we're in a little better shape with OL, I like our chances with Rafferty and Harris, and think they can both become good linemen, but kind of like DT I'm not sure I see us landing a big time 4* OL.
I realize this is probably a ridiculous exercise predicting all of this so far out, but part of the fun will be looking back next February and seeing how far off (or how accurate?) these posts were.
Comments
I just read this article from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Looks like we offered a LB from Lakota West in Xavier Peters. He has some big offers. Glad we are at least throwing our hat in the ring.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/high-school/high-school-sports/20...
We may need to find another way to phrase that...
Pimp school...
Is that's better?
Donte Burton decommitted from UNC today
https://northcarolina.rivals.com/news/3-star-db-burton-decommits-but-hee...
That's great news. Apparently we've been trying to flip him for a while now. I don't know what kind of Engineering he wants to do but I like the odds that VT has it.
If we could get him and Crossen that would be two former UNC CB recruits...that would just feel great.
I never really considered it much but based on a google search I'm having trouble seeing many engineering programs at all offered at Chapel Hill. So I can say with certainty he doesn't want biomedical engineering, which is good news for us (last I knew we had a graduate program but no undergrad). Other than that it's wide open.
It's harder to create fake engineering classes.
Wasn't that hard for Bama when they were recruiting DaShawn Hand, and since UNC are the kings of academic fraud, I'm sure they can figure something out.
African American (Engineering) Studies
Done. Major created.
OR "Engineering of African American Studies: how to cheat the NCAA Oversight Committee"
PCE....Paper Class Engineering
4* athlete Dyami Brown to UNC as of a few hours ago. #NC2VT off to a red hot start. /s but this one stings a bit. He was pretty high on our board and a key cog in the movement.
Man, that does sting. A long way to go still, though.
This is why I still think it's imperative with the 10th assistant coaching position to hire a top-notch recruiter with VA ties. I'm not saying we shouldn't go after top out of state recruits, but we are never going to be able to make a living trying to poach top guys from other states. UNC has a ridiculous pull to top NC recruits, like it or not, because of the basketball success and Jordan thing. We need to make VA a priority, then look out of state to complement our efforts there. I hope this all-in movement on NC doesn't really come back to bite us.
There are big population centers in NC that are closer than VB and NOVA to Blacksburg. People have to get over this state line thing.
and this crop of Virginia players isn't great.
With social media and the increased number of camp events, talented prospects no longer go unnoticed. Kam Chancellor and James Anderson would be high 4-star recruits with huge offer lists in today's world. Consequently, big programs will always be grabbing 4-5 of the top kids in VA every year. IMO, signing 4-5 of the top ten in-state kids should be VT's goal.
Even if VT achieves this goal and locks down 5 of the top 10 in-state kids annually, VA doesn't produce enough top end talent to field a whole team. Assume VT gets 5 of the next ten kids as well, they'll need to go OOS for the other 10-15 kids in every class. We need to make in-roads in NC, GA, & FL so those extra 10-15 OOS kids are top end players as well. Ideally those would also be in the top 10 in NC, top 30 in GA, and top 50 in FL.
We, as a fan base, really need to change our mindset when it comes to recruiting and focus on talent, not state. Outside of LSU, no team keeps more than 4-5 of their respective top 10 in-state prospects. It seems like the staff recognizes this and is going where the talent is.
I'm not at all saying we have to only recruit VA. I'm saying I think it would be a mistake to demphasize such a traditional recruiting pipeline. Last year's recruiting pitch was stay in state, rep your home school, and now when talent on the whole is down in state, we start the NC movement. We very possibly could not sign any of the top players in VA this year at all.
I'm all for expanding our recruiting. But we should be very careful not to lose ground in state.
I don't think the #thisishome campaign has stopped. I'm sure in-state kids still get that pitch, but the high profile VA kids aren't coming here this year. So we don't see them tweeting it out like we did last year.
It's not like Tech isn't offering the kids they just have no interest in the Hokies.
Exactly. Slade, Mitchell, and Asiedu have all been to campus and received the "stay home" pitch. None of them chose to do so.
Eventually the coaches will be held accountable for missing on top 5 in-state kids, but I think it's still too soon. We're one year into this.
Just curious but how many top 5 VA recruits would you say is minimally acceptable once we reach the point that you are talking about?
If we're going to be competing at a national championship level, on average we need to be signing at least 2-3 of the top five, and 4-5 of the top ten in-state kids every year. In addition to that, at least
80%50% of our class should be 4-star kids or better.We've got a ways to go.
EDIT: Changed 80% to 50% because I'm dumb.
Bama doesn't even recruit at an 80% 4 star or better level and they basically draft who they want. The goal should be 50% to win a NC (no school under a 50% ratio has ever won the championship, I think Clemson was just over this year). Though I'm interested to see if that changes with the playoff and more teams having a chance at it.
You're right. I was thinking of the blue chip ratio put forward by Bud Elliot at SB Nation. Not sure why I thought that was 80%. Clearly I'm getting confused with my NCAA 14 recruiting.
We just seem to have a little bit of a bad vibe with VA recruiting right now. Top VA players think they are too good for VT, then you have the Cape situation and our handling of it, and we immediately start shifting away from This is Home to NC2VT. Feels like a weird situation right now in state. I feel like we've lost some ground that we were starting to get back.
The problem with recruiting is there is no prize for second place. I think we are generally moving up the lists of in state kids but haven't truly hit on a bell cow (Hunter committed at the end of the cycle so I don't really count him as a bell cow)
Hunter is a "top 5 ever at VT" recruit. He is most certainly a bell cow, no matter when he signed. Just my $.02.
Your point on gaining ground is well made, though. Now that we are in the conversation, later in the process, and for bigger recruits with more stars, the misses will hurt even more. It's both a good sign (that this staff has made good impressions) and a discouraging one (that, in the end, we are not a prestigious enough program to seal the deal when competing with the 'Bamas and FSUs and OSUs of the world). "No prize for second place" is a perfect way to put it.
Yea, saying that Hunter isn't a bell cow makes zero sense. Recruits have said that his commitment has opened eyes.
The frustrating thing to me is that some people go nuts when a guy doesn't commit to us. Not every recruit is going to pick VT. Other schools have some culture, success, great coaches, and great facilities.
I'm not concerned about VT's recruiting. Give these coaches some time. They need to continue to build on the success that they had last year (success that came earlier than many expected) and the recruits will come.
Thats a fair point on Hunter, I meant in that he committed late in the cycle when the class was already done. Though I guess we had late flips so thats my bad, wasn't the most best point to make.
Though absolutely 0 concern over a recruiting class in May. These things work out
Signing day is a long way off as well. If we land more of our NC targets maybe he ends up flipping. Wouldn't be the craziest thing to ever happen in recruiting.
Exactly-just look at Dylan Rivers last year. This staff is much more aggressive recruiting-wise and up to date with modern standards. I'm quite confident they can flip a player they want, no matter where we are in the recruiting process.
Let's not start panicking just yet folks. Plenty of time to go and plenty of NC recruits to poach.
RB, CB, DT, DE, OT. Is three of each asking too much?
We're going to need a lot more than three at CB and OT. Viable depth is looking scary at both spots after this year. VV and BM have their work cut out for them. DL a concern right now too.
That's going to be the new position switch joke: WR to CB. We are going to bring in a ton and the ones who have trouble catching or route running will switch.
Payton Wilson #2 OLB in the country just committed to UNC. Was a UNC lean all along anyways.