So this tweet from Andy Bitter this morning had me thinking - which school has the most NFL 1st round draft picks?
ICYMI: #Hokies LB Tremaine Edmunds is poised to be the 10th Virginia Tech player to be selected in the NFL Draft's first round.Here's a look back at the first nine.https://t.co/UT7d0ayoAi pic.twitter.com/4oAxrwsVbC— Andy Bitter (@AndyBitterVT) April 24, 2018
Virginia Tech comes in at number 54 with 10 1st Round Draft Picks, Edmunds poised to be the 11th. Obviously the top 25 is loaded with the perennial football powerhouses: Ohio State, Michigan, USC, Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida, Texas, etc.
But what shocks me is that we are pretty much the bottom school that is a Power 5 conference championship contender year in and year out.
Pro: We've done more with less and our record shows it.
Con: Terrible for recruiting conversations with top tier guys that dream of being a #1 pick for an NFL team. Does this speak to our player development?
I think we're going to see a lot more guys go 1st round in the future, but it will take time to get the talent in. Interested in thoughts below.
Comments
Since I'm teaching preschool PE todah and can't do it. Could you break it down into modern (1988-) (1968-88) boomer and pre and post WWII (-1968) how many of those top schools are top heavily with drafts from over 30 years ago?
Trying to see if there is a way to filter this out, as this would be a cool way to look at it. Let me dig on some other sites and see if they have them broken out.
I think your pro answers your con. Tech has historically seen on-field results that are better than its off-field recruiting. I think that speaks highly to coaching staff and player development more than it speaks poorly.
Legitimate follow up: is it harder to take a 3* and coach him into a 4th round draft pick, or take a 5* and coach him into a 1st round draft pick?
Ask loluva....
Well it's pretty easy to take a 5* and coach him into a not-1st round draft pick. Even I could do that.
Not that surprised. We are nouveau riche as far as football success. Not a big cabinet for jerseys, yet.
We might have the best 1st round pick to #1 overall ratio in the country at 5:1.
I think this has more to do with Tech football really only hitting the scene in 1995 and making a quick ascension, vs most of the other P5 schools having players going in the first round since 1965. Florida State is one that breaks the mold, 43 first rounders and really only became a P5 football team in the Bobby Bowden era.
This is an old article from April 2015, but at that time, we were ranked at #16 as the most NFL draft picks since 1995 with 80.
Most NFL Draft Picks Since 1995 via MaxPreps
When you look at Winsipedia rankings, we sit really well with all time wins and win%, but are around 60-70 spot in conf championships (we weren't in much of a conference for most of Tech's history) and low on All-Americans and total draft picks (good team but not many standout players). Tech is listed as the 45th best program All-Time on their ranking system, but hopefully the draft this year has 5+ Hokies and moves us up a few spots.