After the craziness this weekend, it seems like a good time to update the wishlist. I am doing things a little bit differently this time. The last couple posts had been more of a prediction, than a wishlist, and if anything is clear from this past weekend, predicting a class is pointless. So I decided to go back to a true wishlist. There are some reaches on this list, but I think we have at least a shot with all of the kids listed. Here we go:
Best Case Scenario:
| Name | Pos. | Stars | Composite Score | Notes |
| Quincy Patterson | QB | 3 | 0.8708 | |
| Ronnie Walker | RB | 4 | 0.8946 | 4/1 visit |
| Tre Turner | WR | 4 | 0.9274 | |
| Dillon Spalding | WR | 3 | 0.8876 | 4/1 visit, CB leader |
| Darryle Simmons | WR | 3 | 0.8822 | |
| DeJuan Ellis | WR | 3 | 0.861 | |
| Kyle Pitts | TE | 4 | 0.9038 | 4/1 visit, QP 7v7 teammate |
| James Mitchell | TE | 3 | 0.8878 | 4/8 visit |
| Rasheed Walker | OT | 4 | 0.947 | in top 6 |
| TJ Bradley | OT | 3 | 0.87 | JUCO, 6'8" 290, from VA |
| Aiden Rafferty | OT | 3 | 0.8537 | DC, multiple visits |
| John Harris | OG | 3 | 0.8355 | |
| Defense: | ||||
| KJ Henry | DE | 5 | 0.9913 | 4/15 visit, in top 10 |
| Eli Adams | DE | 3 | 0.8333 | |
| Alim McNeil | DT | 4 | 0.9139 | 4/22 visit |
| Cam Goode | DT | 3 | 0.8496 | |
| Joe Kane | DT | 3 | 0.8469 | |
| Dax Hollifield | ILB | 4 | 0.9478 | multiple visits |
| Alan Tisdale | OLB | 3 | 0.8721 | 4/15 visit, CB leader |
| Keshon Artis | ILB | 3 | 0.8687 | from 757 |
| Kalon Gervin | CB | 4 | 0.9187 | ND de-commit, in top 5 |
| Jairus Brents | CB | 4 | 0.9116 | |
| DJ Crossen | CB | 3 | 0.8696 | |
| Braxton Clark | CB | 3 | 0.8405 | |
| Chamarri Conner | S | 3 | 0.8789 | |
| Nasir Peoples | S | 3 | 0.8428 |
Others to Watch:
| Name | Position | Stars | Composite Score | Notes | ||
| Anthony Grant | RB | 3 | 0.8797 | GA, 6/3 visit | ||
| Jalynn Sykes | RB | 3 | 0.8563 | in top 4 | ||
| Malcolm Davidson | RB | 3 | 0.8386 | in top 6, 4.44 40 | ||
| Mateo Durant | RB | 3 | 0.8295 | April visit | ||
| Caleb Steward | RB | June visit, in top 5 | ||||
| Daniel George | WR | 4 | 0.9169 | |||
| Darryl Jones | WR | 4 | 0.89 | 757 | ||
| Shaquon Anderson-Butts | WR | 4 | 0.8838 | PSU lean | ||
| Armani Chatman | WR | 3 | 0.8799 | 757 | ||
| Bryce Thompson | WR | 3 | 0.8646 | |||
| Jeshaun Jones | WR | 3 | 0.8522 | FL | ||
| Tyree Henry | WR/TE | 6' 5" 225, visit 4/1? | ||||
| Herman McCray | TE | |||||
| Blake Zubovic | OT | 3 | 0.8656 | in top 5 | ||
| Jordan McFadden | OT | 3 | 0.8333 | 6/10 visit, in top 12 | ||
| Chase Brown | OT | JUCO, 6'5" 315 | ||||
| Gabriel Gonzalez | OT | |||||
| Derrick Eason | DE/DT | 3 | 0.8333 | 757 | ||
| Rick Sandidge | DT | 4 | 0.9419 | |||
| Dante Stills | DT | 4 | 0.9326 | WV, in top 6 | ||
| Jalen Alexander | DT | 3 | 0.8269 | 757, in top 10 | ||
| Eriq Gilyard | OLB | 3 | 0.8677 | in top 6 | ||
| Nate Thompson | CB | 3 | 0.8711 | 6' 2", Duke in the lead as of 3/25 | ||
| Nadir Thompson | CB | 3 | 0.8529 | in top 3 | ||
| Donte Burton | CB | 3 | 0.8529 | UNC De-Commit | ||
| Rayshad Williams | CB | 3 | 0.8422 | 6'4", in top 2, 4/8 visit | ||
| Tanner Ingle | CB | 3 | 0.8333 | Teammates w/Clark | ||
| Telly Plummer | CB | 3 | 0.8228 | |||
| DeAndre Hollins | CB | 3 | 0.8216 | 6/14 visit | ||
| Tyrese Ross | S | 3 | 0.8416 | |||
| Raymond Boone | ATH | 3 | 0.8556 | in top 8 |
Other notes:
-In my mind the biggest reaches on the wishlist are Rasheed Walker, KJ Henry, and Jairus Brents. I think we have a chance with them all but would be pretty surprised if we actually ended up landing any of them.
-This may be too big of a class this year, but I've heard the numbers always work out. Even with taking 26, there were a few more that I really wish we could pick up, they are Mataeo Durant, Daniel George, Rick Sandidge, Nate Thompson, and Nadir Thompson.
-I'm pumped about landing Eli Adams and Cam Goode. I like the possible pair of Cam and Alim McNiell as our TDs together. I think Cam is more of a space eater run stopper, and Alim is more of a disruption in the backfield, could be a great balance.
-The only position I am still concerned with is O-line. It was great to pick up Harris, but we definitely need some help and it seems like we may be underdogs for the rest of the top linemen we've offered.
-Lastly, if we landed all of the kids on wishlist our recruiting class would have an average composite score of 0.8849 which would put us right around a top 10 class based on last years rankings.
As always, feel free to agree, disagree, or pose questions. I have no #sauces so this is all just based on a 5th grade teacher who has gotten way too into recruiting for the first time. Hope you enjoy.
Also, shout out to hokie07ME for the tutorial on how to make tables from the last post, and apologies for the crazy table format in previous posts. Hopefully this one is easier to read!
Comments
I'd really like to see us pull a decent runningback soon.
Staff is much lower on Ronnie Walker than the rest of the targets there. Top two guys are probably Durant and Steward (assuming grant heads to UT). Rafferty is dropping quickly down the board, might not have a spot as of today. Even with the Thompson decommitment, not sure if we'll go after Spalding. Someone like Chatman is much more likely.
Who's on the OL board? Can we be picky? Chase Brown just went to Pitt btw
Also isn't Chatman getting more looks at DB?
I like Steward and Walker among the list of RBs. Give me one of those RBs plus McNeil at DT, Graves at DB, Artis or Hollifield at LB and Pitts at TE as my top 5 wants. After that, all efforts must go to the big uglies.
Why low on Walker?
His offer list isn't impressive. Probably recruiting services have him ranked a higher than he should be.
Durant and Steward have unimpressive highlight films, as does Armani Chatman (makes the catch, but usually goes down easily at first contact). Anthony Grant is the most explosive RB.
nice job with the tables. Much much easier to read.
Know it's a massive longshot, but have they made any push for Zamir White? (If this has been discussed, I haven't kept up great with these threads...my bad.)
His top-5 consists of UGA, UGA, UGA, UGA, and UGA.
Don't think that as done of deal as it has been made out to be. There's still some smoke about him and UNC
Go Scots! But yeah there is no way Zamir goes to Tech.
My Dad is real good friends with Joe Moorehead (oc of psu) I asked him if he could lay off Anderson-Butts but he just laughed at me
Father's Day is coming up. Time for payback...
This may be a bit nit picky, but is there any way you can differentiate those that have already verbally committed just to make it a bit easier to read.
Yea, meant to do that. Will try to make a note of it for the next post. Thanks!
I find it slightly sad our "wish list" only contains 1 5* and 8 4* recruits
There are only 25 composite 5 star players in the country.
Fun with numbers:
Every year there are 25-30 composite 5* recruits. This roughly corresponds to the number of first round draft picks each year (32).
Every year there are ~325-350 4* athletes. There are generally just over 250 draft picks.
If you bring in a 5* recruit and seven 4* recruits, you could expect to have one first round draft pick and five guys total drafted from that class.
We need to start landing 8 4* recruits a year. That means a lot more than 8 to be in play for
This. A perennial top 25 team shouldn't have to consistently do more with less. For us to ever rise up out of the "one loss from being dropped from rankings" status we need to pull better talent consistently. I have faith in Fuente but time will tell
A couple thoughts:
-I don't think the coaches care about how many 4 stars we land. Case in point, Quincy Patterson. He was relatively unknown of when we landed him. Now it looks like he will be due for a bump soon, but what if he twisted his ankle day 1 of the opening and didn't get to compete? He would likely not be getting all the hype he's getting, but do you think Fuente would be any less excited about him?
-As I said in the original post, if we were to land everyone on the wishlist that would be really close to a top 10 recruiting class. I think we would be crazy not to be ecstatic about that in year 2 of Fuente's tenure. I think a top 10 class with 8 four star kids is a very reasonable yet exciting wishlist for where our program currently is.
-Lastly, and maybe most importantly, these are just the thoughts of a random teacher with no inside sources. I'm sure my wishlist looks very different from the staffs, and as long as we keep winning games I am more than willing to trust our staff to go after whichever recruits they think will help get us to the next level.
Don't want this reply to come off sounding defensive, disagreements are welcome, just wanted to share some thoughts!
It also depends on what recruiting services you're basing your rankings on. According to ESPN we have 7 top 300, 4* commits (might be 6 now, I think Bryce Thompson was one of them)
-I know the coaches don't care about stars. They want talent, and they are very good at evaluating it. However over an aggregate 85 players on the team, the higher rated guys are going to pan out more than the lower rated guys. That's just a fact. If there is a 3 star guy with a skill set Fuente loves, there was probably a 4 star with the same skill set plus a bit more that Fuente would have preferred. If we want to beat FSU and Clemson, we need to up that 4* rate.
-8 4* kids is not getting you a top 10 class. That is not reasonable. Take a look at some past class rankings. You need double digits easy plus however many 5*. I would never expect a top 10 VT class. 8 4*s would put you in the upper teens range, which is where we need to be. But again recruiting never plays out as the best case scenario, so to get 8 4*, we need to be in a good position with more than that.
I looked at last year's rankings.
ND had the number 10 class with 21 commits with an 89.17 average composite score.
UF was 11 with 23 commits at an average score of 88.97.
TA&M was 12th with 28 commits at an average score of 87.88.
So the list above would be 26 recruits with an average score of 88.49. I think that puts us very near a top 10 class based on past recruiting classes.
Kyle Pitts trending to Florida.
Heard that UF guys were thinking if he was committing it would be sooner rather than later. The longer he goes without committing, the better for us I would think. Plus he's going to have QP as his QB at The Opening. Certainly doesn't hurt our chances if he goes into that event uncommitted with QP in his ear.
ALL THE SOUTH VIRGINIA RECRUITS, PLEASE
I really wish this kid was from Apex, NC. The irony would be so delicious.
Ah yes, the peak of good living!