Discuss and share any recruiting topics October 2020 that don't warrant their own thread
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link to the 2021 Unofficial Big Board (google sheet)
September 2020 247 Embeds:
(not exhaustive, and no particular order):
We really need a DT or two. Looks like Devin Lee is going SEC. Would Nelson or Jackson be big enough to slide inside since both are 260+.
Wish we had a better baseball program and could do a hard pitch to Tywone Malone. A guy can dream.
My guess is that we take a developmental 3t, as we are much deeper there relative to N/1t, so probably an Ian Mathews type, or if we can pull back in on Devin Lee.
For a N/1t type I think if we cannot flip Tyleik Williams (no developments there) we will have to go JUCO again to get a ready to play body for 2021.
I hate relying on it and would love to see our recruiting improve but the transfers and JUCOs in have paid big dividends for us in our first game this year
It's going to be really really interesting to see how many people next year enter the portal because the guy in front of them on the depth chart stays an extra year due to this year not costing them a year of eligibility.
It seems to me there won't be a lot of portal slots available next year - particularly for guys who have someone in front of them on depth charts.
the decision to leave for the draft will be interesting. What do 4-year and 5-year seniors do? They essentially have to make an assessment as if they are a junior leaving early. Or maybe they'll have some special rule this year where seniors (and only seniors) can opt for the draft or free agent signing and then come back if it doesn't work out, idk.
Also, graduate transfers. Would Rashard Ashby or player of his caliber, for example, graduate undergrad and transfer to play for SEC blue blood in 2021 if he isn't on NFL draft boards? (I have no idea how Ashby is viewed by the NFL, but the general point being a super solid senior that may be a 7th rounder or FA signing, practice squad guy in NFL on a upper mid-tier college program like VT.) Would a blue blood even take on a super senior?
Yeah I'm not anti-JUCO at all. I think there is a time and place for them to be very useful, especially for filling holes with guys who sometimes have a great mentality from the adversity they've experienced to that point.
I would like to have a couple four year DL in the pipeline though at all times.
I'm actually a fan of JUCO and transfer DL. It worked for terror dome baby!
I agree, I like it too. I was just saying for roster construction purposes you don't want to be too reliant on it because of the shortened window. I'm more than happy to take some JUCOs/transfers every year to fill needs. I just also like to have young guys in the pipeline at key positions as well.
One area that this may impact I don't see a lot of folks talking about, is the draft.
Within the first 10 mins of the NCS game, literally al l the transfers we had been excited about made plays. If they keep this up, there is no reason why they should go in the draft.
Additionally, it not only makes us look smart for taking someone like Reed, but also for him. If he keeps up with what he is doing, there is no reason to think his draft stock catapulted to new levels being at VT.
Last couple of years were down, but now we may start seeing a lot of guys get into the pros, transfers and other kids Fu picked up. That will be huge for recruiting as a whole, as it will start to prove that our coaches can get you there.
At first I thought Justus Reed's past medical issues and advanced age would make him a lackluster draft prospect, perhaps artificially forcing him into an UDFA deal.
However, if he puts together a double digit sack season, and with the way NFL teams can extort value from shitty mid-late round draft contracts, I could see someone viewing him as a pretty solid value pick. Low risk in the regard that he wouldn't be hitting the cap hard, and if he doesn't make a 2nd contract then they can move on at low cost, but if he excels and is healthy then they got his first few years cheap.
He needs, what, 2 more games to hit double digit sacks?
FTFY
Two more games
quarters. I will take 6 sacks against UNC rather than Duke.Both pls
I see the recruiting thread is off to a focused start.
We're talking about hokie football, that's a win in my book
Demarkus Bowman, Clemson RB, hitting the portal already.
That was fast.
So assuming he doesn't play for us, he will be eligible to play wherever he wants this season, right?
Betting he ends up in Florida at one of the Big 3: UF, Miami or UCF.
UCF is in the big 3 in Florida ?
Well, they are definitely ahead of FSU on that list.
F-A&M may be knocking on the door for 4th banana at this point.
Don't sleep on the Rattlers 🐍
I mean they have a natty in the last 5 years...
They're big time.
Nyke with some highlights from last night
Give me some Tahj Bullock
All of this
Tahj threw 5 touchdowns and ran for 1.
Getting more excited by the day to see him in a tech uniform.
I missed this before - must not be TKP'ing hard enough. That's awesome news! Looking forward to getting him on campus!!! I'd love to get a great passer and have a great RB as well!
Wasn't there a supposed flip happening these past couple of weeks. Like a big get who had committed elsewhere but coming back to the good guys? Or did I miss something?
You did not miss anything. I think there are some people on here who claim to be in the know, when really they might have heard someone, who heard someone, who thinks they know something.
So basically:
17 and 18 year olds do not operate on any specific schedule.
Yeah, I get that. But the folks in the know made it sound like it was coming in the next week or two and was a done deal.
I never said anything was imminent... I said there are possible legs to a potential flip soon, now you interpreting as within the next couple weeks is on your own doing. But most recently we have secured another silent commit. Stay tuned, if we can handle business on the field recruits will follow.
Ah ok. Guess when we hear something knew, we assume it's something coming soon.
I agree, we keep things up this season and things will get good.
i don't think it's fair to say people are misinterpreting a possible timeframe, since you used the word "soon"
Tray Curry Decomitted
https://247sports.com/college/virginia-tech/Article/2021-WR-Tray-Curry-d...
Let's look into a big time receiver..and get them to the good guys
Not a shock...comittment seemingly came out of nowhere with most of his "top" teams being SEC.
Probably another non-committable offer "transforming." Will know in a week or so, seems to be the requisite grace period before announcing your new commitment.
Still hurts, another shot to the '21 class. Probably too late to do much to bring this class up, but the Staff really needs to address Recruiting issues ASAP--can't rely solely on Transfers to fill misses in Recruiting.
So much this. I'm certainly happy to have the transfers we have, but at some point we have to land kids we can develop into legitimate P-5 players.
Piggybacking on this - Transfers/JUCOs should be used to fill one or two gaps on the roster each year. Any more than that (on a consistent basis) you risk destabilizing your roster. Bill Snyder is the only coach to effectively and consistently field teams with a significant amount of Transfers/JUCOs. Could Fuente can sustain this? I suppose it's possible, but it definitely makes me nervous.
Makes me nervous as well, but I think the portal requires you to look at it differently than how things were done in the Snyder era. Still, I'd rather be able to get back to consistently recruiting in the Top 30.
The transfer portal has simply turned transfers into another form of recruiting. Second chance recruiting, if you will, for players who developed late or early and either got over-recruited or under-recruited. The fact that a team may only get transfers for a year or two just means there's an additional layer of roster management.
If the fanbase wants to consistently contend for ACC championship, folks need to get past the quaint notion of a few winning seasons and, voila, VT is going to consistently recruit at a top 15 (or even top 20) level.
The roster development game has completed changed in the last 10 years or so. There are too many factors going against VT being able to be consistently competitive in the 2020's by focusing almost entirely on traditional recruiting route of focusing on top in-state and nearby out-of-state high school recruits.
Virginia Tech needs to utilize the strengths it does have - and be creative and a step of others in order to remain competitive going forward. If that means dipping into the transfer portal for a handful of players every year, so be it.
I know you included the consistent basis caveat and other posters have made counterpoints above, but this line stood out to be because I get the sense that transfers/JUCOs significantly stabilized our team in the wake of 2018. It feels like there was a massive void in peer leadership and the staff was able to bring in experienced players who really helped transform the attitude inside the locker room.
It's a fair point, and I think Fuente has used the transfer market very well. I'm just concerned if we can scout, recruit, and deploy transfers at this same rate every single year.
This season we have at least 5 key pieces who are transfers (Blackshear, Herbert, Hoffman, Justice, Burnmiester - though he was brought over to build depth), and I'm sure some other players who are getting a lot of snaps. I'm just not sure how feasible it is to have 25% of your starting roster be guys who only have 1-2 years of eligibility. I suppose it's similar to getting five guys each year who leave early for the draft. Maybe I'm wrong, and this is doable now that there's so many players transferring this year.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. I foresee the transfer market remaining a big chunk of the roster talent. But we will also lose some to the market so the net gain isnt as valuable as it may seem. We still need to up our standard recruiting significantly. And building depth is going to be interesting because your borderline two deep players are running for the portal.
The TSL podcast addressed this thoroughly. The recruiting is not on the staff but more so on the admin not allocating enough funds to the football program for recruiting. I believe the numbers shook out to VT spending about 38% on football recruiting where UNC was spending 51%..... before Mack Brown. The staff is doing their best with essentially a skeleton crew and bare bones funding. It actually is truly remarkable that we were able to field winning teams recently- given what they had to work with.
We have hired five new people dedicated to recruiting, so were getting there.
Semi related, but 247 has rankings for the best recruiters and coaches in the country. They are rated on the number of recruits and their composite scores, just like team ratings are compiled.
Virginia Tech's highest coach nationally for the 2021 cycle is... Adam Lechtenberg at 112th nationally, 20th in the ACC. Next are James Shibest, and Jafar Williams at 133 and 152 respectively. I don't know if this is a chicken/egg situation compared to the spending route, or what, but you have to think it will get better, right?
We make some great offers though /s ...
*Ducks*
The coaches are certainly not without their share of the blame/responsibility. But at the same time we haven't exactly put them in a situation to succeed. It's like an NFL team drafting a QB, surrounding him with lackluster talent/coaching, then acting shocked when he fails to develop. Sure, he might just be bad, but he never had a chance. If we were a big money school we could afford to just cut ties and move on, but given our limitations it's almost certainly cheaper to invest in recruiting staff, and if it doesn't work out that investment should still pay dividends for the next staff.
Are you suggesting cutting ties with Fuente (if we had the money)? We've talked on here a lot about his positives and negatives. Yes, recruiting is NOT doing well, but there's always the mantra that winning cures everything. We've brought in some studs through the portal (which we tend to ignore when looking at recruiting classes), and just put up 45 and 38 points on our first two P5, in-conference opponents. It seems like we're headed in the right direction. Yeah, like I said, we're having our misses in recruiting, but let's see if we can't continue what we've been doing, have a very successful season (who on here would have guessed before the beginning of the season that we'd score that many points against in-conference opponents? Put your hands down, liars!) , and translate that into recruits next year.
And yes, I know, people will say "we keep saying 'next year'" but has anybody felt this excited about football in a long time? Probably not since 2016, and even then, I feel more excite about our offense this year than that year. And I hadn't felt excited about offense before 2016 for I don't know how many years. Even back in 2011 when we went 11-3, we only scored over 28 in 6 of our 14 games. 2010 is the last time we put up a lot of points.
And we've been playing with a heavily depleted defense, but still getting the job done. We rank #1 in the NCAA in sacks, and our D-line was supposed to be a weakness of ours.
So if we haven't been excited about our team, recruits most likely haven't been either. Like I said, if we can keep this up, I gotta believe this will translate into recruiting in the future.
Fuente has loaded the staff with young, energetic guys and brought in/kept experience with Vice, Shibest, Claeys. I think in a normal recruiting year, we will see the benefit. Keep in mind for almost all of 2020, they cannot host or visit recruits. It is a dead period. It is a terrible year to go on star rankings since camps are limited as well.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that - I think a lot of the staff turnover, or maybe more importantly the hires, was to focus on recruiting. Leading the nation in sacks and other D-line play will hopefully get some guys drafted and the TnT hire should definitely bring in some high ranked guys. I think Smith, young and in touch with the region was probably geared at identifying more with the young guys and recruiting VA. JHam I think will start bringing in some talent, it probably feels more like a gamble from a recruits perspective (if other schools aren't using his lack of coaching experience against us directly). But considering how we're doing with our 2nd and 3rd string guys in, seems like we're headed the right direction both on the field and hopefully with recruiting as well.
And yeah, Vice is coaching up some guys, Lechtenberg seemed like a gamble, but we're getting amazing running results this year, so that looks like it's paying off. Definitely feel like we're headed in a good direction.
Here's where I'm at right now, the panned 2020 recruiting class looks like it has two potential key players/starters in Strong and Jenkins and the top of the class hasn't had to play yet. And that's a "poor" small class. So to me, there appears to be some good chops by the staff to find talent. If they can figure out a way to reel in known talent, then that's a game changer. I feel like we're getting closer and closer to the old normal and farther and farther away from the new normal recruiting wise.
To be fair, Strong wouldn't be playing if this was a normal year.
Very true, but he showed out last weekend and that's promising
I agree. He has the potential for sure.
I'm not saying that, I like Fuente a lot and am optimistic about where the program is headed. But I also always default to psyched because football is fun and being negative is less fun. Even if I'm not nearly as convinced as I used to be that Fuente is the guy, there's no way we could afford the buyout and find someone obviously better, so I think there's little upside in rolling the dice and spending the money that could be invested long term. This especially considering this staff shakeup may be just what we needed.
That said, in CFB today, recruiting is priority 1, 2, and 3 and Fuente has yet to push us beyond where we were when Frank stepped down (nevermind his peak). For our situation, I think trying to move on would cripple us financially and a bad hire could put us in a hole that would take up to a decade to crawl out of. But, if we had the money to just fire people and get some mega booster to pony up the cash, I'd have a much harder time defending this staff.
Also semi related: know someone who had a convo with TH's dad and asked why he didn't commit to VT and how it was being recruited by them in comparison to other schools. Dad said he loved vt but they "acted like they didn't care that much" (which to me says we just can't compete with the time or perks like the blue bloods can with all their $$).
Said LSU emphasized the girls and party scene and that turned them off from there; said bamas turn off was they made it feel like he was applying to a very strict job, no nonsense no fun you're gonna show up and clock in, no warm and fuzzies about it.
TH?
Hopewell RB
treveyon henderson
using names just makes everything easer
GGC has a point
Ty 7H3
Took me far to long to figure out what 7H3 meant, lol
Is that Huggins or someone else?
I could be making things up in my head, but hasn't it been said CJF's recruiting style is to not kiss your ass? Which in my mind (assumption) is why we do better in the portal with "older" players. Which I can respect because in the end you'll have committed players and not someone chasing crap that shines.
Yeah - hard to tell what they mean by "not caring." Follow-up direct contact with staff? This could be limited by recruiting staff. Not kissing up like you pointed out. Someone posted a tweet from a recruit who'd gotten all kinds of postcards and stuff from coaches and staff, so seems like the attention to the recruits is there.
That's what I would assume based on the short statements in each given. We just don't have the staff or funds to be in the kids lap every day like schools with unlimited staff and dough.
This aligns with other feedback that I have read and heard regarding CJF. He will not win anyone over with his personality and until he has tangible thing a to sell (Coastal/ACC 'ships, high draft picks, etc..) I would expect mediocre recruiting until the assistants get there feet under them in the recruiting game. Basically, I don't believe he is the type of person to "sell" a recruit on coming to VT like a salesman or a closer. He is like Carvana, he lays it out in a very unemotional (some may argue uninspiring) way and it's basically take it or leave it and if not we'll see if the next guy buys it. That's what he is for better or worse. Hopefully one of the assistants can become that ace recruiter AND stick around if they do.
So like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer
Yeah those three are pretty much the same. Well, except for all the conference and national championships, maybe that makes a difference I'm not sure.
You were talking about personality
One of the things I mentioned was his personality. Since he does not have all the hardware and rings and trophies and track record of yearly 1st round picks, his pitch and the seeming delivery of it doesn't seem to be resonating as well. Again, I think he has an eye for talent but there is no debate that he has not closed on his identified priority targets the past couple yrs. The recruiting of Devyn Ford, specifically his visit and dinner with the coaches, and the comments in this thread regarding Henderson lead me to believe CJF could improve on his ability to recruit relative to his peers.
I've never been recruited by Fuente, but I did have the chance to meet him. I found him to be far from 'uninspiring.' He shows plenty of emotion. He's not a bullshitter; he's honest, straight forward, and doesn't sugar coat things. Most high end recruits have never had their skill level questioned, and have never had to 'wait their turn' so I imagine that some are put off by honest conversations. He seems like the kind of guy who practices 'radical candor.'
I am very critical of our recruiting, but I would imagine those "honest conversations" about waiting their turn go over a lot better at blue bloods. I also think those are probably particularly hard to have when presenting from VT right now, but hopefully this season helps changes that hurdle if it's true.
1000% agree. There's a ton of room for improvement in recruiting (from a relationship building standpoint, and a product standpoint, as you alluded to), but this notion that Fuente is some emotionless robot (as NOLAHokie seems to imply) who just gives a recruit an offer, then tells them "take it or leave it" is just not true (sidenote - I have #sauces who say this was paul johnson's recruiting approach).
I didn't think he was an emotionless robot, I don't think I implied tact, but if I did, my bad. He seems way too down to earth to be that way. There 100% has to be a way back to his couple of very nice classes and I think/hope our staff is headed in the right direction long term.
I'm not trying to say he's an emotionless robot. I'm saying that he is super upfront and honest and probably doesn't rely on tugging at the heartstrings of 17-18 year-olds to earn commitments (for better or worse). I think his and the staff's eye for talent is great but I would like to see those evaluations turn into commitments on signing day at a higher percentage than they currently are.
i dont even know if the "you'll have to wait your turn" thing is even really what VT is selling. We've seen so many players be immediate contributors in the last few years (whether juco, traditional transfers, or true freshmen) that it doesn't seem to jive tbh
Here's my problem with the it's Money, Facilities, ect....
VT has always been at a disadvantage to the Blue Bloods in these respects. So then why did we seemingly Recruit well in '17, '18, and '19??
While none of those classes were even top-20, they were in the top-half of the ACC and seemed to be moving in right direction.
The problem for me is the last 2 classes have fallen off dramatically..yet we're devoting more money and staff to Recruiting...??...doesn't compute.
There's a lot of factors to consider:
None of these factors alone caused the dip in recruiting, but between changes in the competitive landscape, past mistakes from the staff, and a lack of funding, we're in a undesirable position. Yes, some coaches (both fired and current) are at fault, but the staff is/has course corrected. However, that correction takes time. More money can accelerate that time table.
We started to THIS year; i.e Cory Fuller, JGW, Alex White, etc.
We have been par for the course in those listed classes, and 2020 has been discussed ad nauseum. We have been at a disadvantage to the blue bloods bc we have always been a fiscally "tight" athletic dept. You cant expect to compete with the blue bloods if you're not willing to spend like the blue bloods. This goes well beyond Hokie Club, this is an allocation issue. This is why Fu bluffed with jetting to Baylor, we were not willing to take the necessary measures to be a truly competitive program. This is not a difficult equation, if we really want to be "back", then we need to spend the money where it matters, get the necessary staff in place, and then begin building the correct way.
TSL had in their pod that at one of the recruiting meetings with the ACC, UVA had TWICE the number of recruiting staff that we did. That is unacceptable. IMO, if there is blame, its at the feet of Whit, not Fu. Fu has done an incredible job when you consider in the uphill battle hes had in regards to recruiting. Hell, when the Sons of Saturday had Iezzi on, he said we didnt have HUDL until LAST YEAR. And we wonder why recruiting has been down...
Now there's plenty of room to bring in Jayden Keller
The pitch works for some people really well. The damn things are framed and on their wall in the image Tech sent them. "This is Home" taken directly into their home.
Damn that's pretty creative
Let's get this guy on staff as a recruiting closer. By his twitter it seems he just gets "it"
(note: I know we cant hire him since his son committed)
Anyone (edit: know) if there's a connection here?
Got quote tweeted by Field Yates fwiw
Pfafftown is in NW Forsyth County (NW of Winston Salem) and is on US 52 which is on the way up to Blacksburg. Fun Fact: High School is named after Ronald Reagan.
Here's his highlights:
http://www.hudl.com/v/2CVcnL
I'm willing to bet French would be concerned with his lack of footwork and pad level.
Get that man an offer if he doesn't have one.
Neutral news for once - or at least not totally negative - DJ Harvey will be completing his senior season, and will not be enrolling early at VT.
He said it's his personal decision and even though he was strongly considering coming early he talked it over with the coaches and they are fine with him playing out the season in California.
When lots of states were pushing their HS seasons to the spring Barton and Bud talked awhile on their podcast about how playing a senior season is more important to development than enrolling early with only three years, even less for some who didn't start varsity as freshmen in high school. They also talked about how enrolling early is an advantage for a lot of players (in a normal year), but that the significance of it is often inflated by fans.
That is good to know. He definitely seems like a guy who wants to be a Hokie so I have no worries about him changing his mind. And to be honest, I wouldn't begrudge anyone who wants to spend as much time with their friends and family in a situation like right now.
Considering many of us don't know what the spring will entail, and the advantage is overstated as you (and others) say - stay in California, have fun, and keep developing as best as you can.
he was part of the big TX2VT offer push and we had hosted his father and older brother (a transfer RB) on campus in the fall, and if i remember correctly he was supposed to come to the spring game with the whole TX2VT gang. His brother picked aTm and so did he.
Are we going to sign a large fellow at D-tackle? Please say yes. Please, anyone, say yes.
YEihopeSo
It may be about time for CJF to get back to fishing in the transfer portal. More success there than in HS recruiting.
https://www.hudl.com/profile/12997939/Micah-Pollard
Jersey #: 41
Positions: SS
Height & Weight: 6'3" 200lbs
Class of: 2022
Twitter profile says he is an OLB. He is another Jacksonville product
any relation to Norell? also FL guy but i think the Orlando area
Yeah Norell is from just outside Orlando. Not sure if any relation as I don't have a Twitter account and can't see who follows him. I didn't see Norell retweet or respond to this tweet though for what you can infer from that
That's one stout shortstop /s
Tevin White's top 6 does not include VT. Was really hoping we could stay in contention now that we're showing what a talented back can do in our offense :(
So, what happened this time?
too big time for the Commonwealth
Pedo State, UGa, sure. These are the legit Big Dogs.
Tennessee? USCjr? Um, I guess they're having a resurgence to SEC mediocrity.
ASU? I dunno. Maybe he did a google image search for ASU coeds, but for football?
Duke? I'm just not seeing it.
don't sleep on arizona state. that staff has a T O N of nfl experience as players and coaches -- i'd guess more so than any other P5 staff
https://thesundevils.com/sports/football/coaches
If I'm a LB or any defensive player considering ASU as a school...to be coached by Pierce/Lewis and getting the ASU campus "experience".....sign me up.
This makes perfect sense if you are working under the assumption that he is "a big devil guy"
We haven't put a RB in the league since '11?
We're gonna reset that clock real soon. Of course, I'm not sure how much we can claim on KH21's talent development, but at least we gave him a line to run behind.
If Wisconsin can claim Russell Wilson, we can claim Herbert!
Without any doubt
I think when a kid is pretty much forced to transfer (e.g. Russell Wilson, Herbert) the new school gets to claim him.
Trey Edmunds...although he transferred as a grad student.
He was an UDFA out of college, so I don't think that really counts. Beams and crew screwed the pooch with him, unfortunately.
What does being a UDFA have to do with it?
good. get it out of the way now, and we can move on. better than being strung along, and having false hope.
12th reported P5 offer
It's simple, I trust Vice's evals.
6th P5 offer but smart kid -- offers from multiple ivies, rice, and air force
First name Remington...from Texas...yep, this checks out
Right after Brock was put on the Rimington watch list too...
His other siblings:
Smith, Wesson, Walther, Colt, and Kalashnikov
Strong name
Michigan and OU offers most recent.
Will be a tough pull, but OL is something we are showcasing every week. Hopefully he's tuning in.
Wonder how he feels about playing defensive tackle...
Don't care about stars, if Vice wants him, I'm on board.
Well he's a big fella. I like it.
he was also excited enough that 15 minutes after he tweeted out his offer, he retweeted himself
I see Remington's got a quick draw...FIRE!
Nah, double barrel. Duh.
Twitter akimbo.
TWSS
Pretty nice catch by Kenji Christian
Oooooh I like that
A week late on this, but wow:
Link
Did not know he played QB. My super orange and marron, irrational brain saw this and thought, "Kam Chancellor?"
Don't kill the messenger, but T.J. Huggins to Tulane. I know he was a target for a while, and people assumed he would be get a stronger look after Curry decommit - but that just didn't happen.
Are we sure he wasn't trying to commit to go "to Lane" to play in college? Could this all be a big misunderstanding?
I LOLd. But seriously though, I'm very surprised, looking at that offer list, and seeing him pick Tulane.
Really big mardi gras fan?
If you look at an offer list full of P5's and they pick a G5 then there is usually a reason, and 98% of the time those "offers" aren't really offers anymore for one reason or another.
Unless he wants to be a doctor and thinks the odds of that happening are greater than him going pro so he picked a school that (apparently) has a good medical program that he'll get his education paid for with a scholarship? If that's his plan, he'd definitely redshirt as well for the extra year of tuition.
There are always exceptions. So we can always come up with an anecdotal reason why a recruit might do something like this, but it's not often the reason.
Though I will say that it's my understanding that we actually did just straight up lose an OL recruit or two to App State who had committable VT offers.
I wonder if they rethink that commitment seeing how our offensive line is performing now.
I hope so, but for teams like us it often doesn't matter.
This is the best our OL has looked in a long time, maybe ever. There's still a good chance we finish this recruiting class missing on almost all of our top OL targets.
We have Khalil Herbert in Heisman contention, averaging almost 10 ypc in an offense rushing for over 300 ypg, he's almost certainly gone after this season leaving open the starting job for next year, and we likely won't even sign a 4* running back this cycle, and if LSU offers Kenji Christian then we may well lose our top RB recruit despite all of our on-field rushing success.
Such is the nature of college football.
I agree. The headscratchers are when a recruit picks a school that isn't as good from a football program perspective and the education isn't as good either. If someone chooses an Ivy or other very good academic program, it seems like there's at least the possibility the recruit chose academics over football. Not saying that's what actually happened, just that it could make sense when compared to a recruit picking App State or ECU over us or something.
Not that the rankings are the be-all, end-all, but do folks realize Tulane is an appreciably higher rated school than VT?
Do you know this to be a fact or something? It is oddly specific.
Pure conjecture - just looked up Tulane and it said they are a strong medical program so chose doctor just because of that.
My wife interviewed there for a Ph.D. in Epidemiology while we were in New Orleans on our honeymoon. Considering the research she did just to come to a point to interview, I would not behoove anyone from going to Tulane. Also cant fault anyone for choosing to go their for the simple fact that it is in New Orleans.
...
Begrudge maybe?
FWIW, VIrginia Tech has both a MD and DO school and Virginia Tech Carilion is a higher ranked med school than Tulane.
It is newer though - which shouldn't matter, but it also isn't in New Orleans. And there's a lot less cold in Louisiana. Could be lots of reasons he chose Tulane.
However Tulane Med is quite integrated with the School of Public Health - which is very highly rated. Something like half of their med grads also earn MPH's.
I might love Travis Shaw, DT 2022, NC, as much as any player I have seen in a long time. Any intel on this guy? Are T and T camping out at his house?
for reference
need Ws over better than average teams to bring in this kind of talent. I pray we beat Clemson somehow and maybe perception will start changing.
If I am a recruit (O line or R-back), I really don't care if we ran for 300+ on State, Duke, BC and nearly UNC. Beat someone decent and maybe I will consider you over blues and even lower-tier teams in the mix.
A lot more than a few W's over better than average teams are needed...a LOT more.
On average Recruits don't care about individual wins or losses.
Individual, no. Trends of winning vs losing and being an average team, yes.
Did you ask them all?
I know this is getting downvoted but I laughed
Beating Clemson opens the eyes of every '22 and beyond recruit. Beating DaU and playing Clemson close does wonders also... imo
*edited*... can we move on now?
Man can you imagine having a player that is 22'! All you'd have to do is have QP throw the ball from our endzone to 22' above the other endzone and it's a touchdown every time. You can't defend that.
I mean hell, assuming at least a 20' wingspan all he'd have to do is fall over and extend. It'd be a first down every play
I wonder what size gloves he would wear.
I too also love all 5 🌟 DT recruits.
On average, we consistently lose in embarrassingly ways to top teams, terrible teams, and have not beaten anyone of tier 1 relevance in god knows how long (searched W/L and stopped at 2016 due to overwhelmingly feeling of depression).
A W versus Clemson would be a great start and is something only five teams can say in the last six years. The post obviously was not claiming a single game would change a recruits mind, i.e., "Ws", plural. How many games did we lose in 2018, o that is right, 7.
I don't know why this has so many downvotes. It's not unreasonable what he's suggesting, albeit a little too troll-y.
It reads like we have been winless for years
Yeah - losing to top teams? You don't have to go any further than last year for a 20-21 loss to an 11-2 ND team (ranked 12 in the final AP poll last year). That's not getting demolished by a top team. Sadly, the demolitions we've been the victim of haven't been top teams, they've been crappy teams. And if he went back to 2016, there's my favorite point - we lost 35-42 to Clemson, the eventual National champ (who SHUT OUT Ohio State in the playoffs). Plus, even if we lose to Clemson this year (presumably), I doubt we go out like chumps. I'm willing to bet we throw everything we have at them and make it at least respectable.
Y'all know I am, but I imagine everyone is anxiously awaiting to see if our dominant run game makes an appearance against Clemson. Even in a loss if we can run effectively on that defense it will be very easy to be excited about the future of this offense.
That's be dope. Especially if we we beat everyone after today Nd after Clemson but. They are going to wreck Tech. It won't be close Nd if it is close them for some reason Miami wrecks us. We can't have both
Yeah my hopes are minuscule. Today lessened them even more.
Sees 21 new posts on the recruiting thread...
Hey this set was pretty good. Almost all of them were on topic, just a few of them were recruiting news.
Devin Lee committed to Ole Miss yesterday. I know he was a target at position of need but it was expected he was going to the SEC.
That's nice of Ole Miss to employ 3rd graders to do their photoshops for them.
The electric blue and pink really threw me off. Even after I figured out what it was, I was still confused.
It is tough times, you need to outsource graphic design and found a class willing to do it free as project credit.
I know you're being sarcastic, but some of the most 'famous' recruiting graphic artist are kids. One guy just started as a freshman at LSU - his name is Hayes Fawcett - He started doing the top X photoshops for recruits when he was in 8th grade. LSU recruited him to be on their marketing staff. Here's a podcast interview with him, it kicks off at the 56:30 mark:
Soooooo no DT commits . Cool
At this point, I'm kind of assuming we'll really try to pick up one or two in the portal.
This is where I have been for awhile. Seems like the logical step to go after a couple transfer/JUCO DT's. Long term we need to start getting more four year guys into that room. The cupboard isn't bare with sophomores in Pollard and Kendricks, and r-FR Fuga, but we need to make sure we don't leave a substantial gap in the DT room.
Let's hope some good ones come up through portal
Alex Orgy is one of my other handles.
The QB transition from Hooker to Orji would be something
He's a dual threat so there's gonna be an Orji in the endzone
After watching his Hudl highlights, I'll have all of the Orji.
Hokies just picked up a CB for 3* athlete Jaden Keller from Tennessee.
The 6'3" 202 lbs player (.8627 composite, 87 by 247) for the 2021 class has P5 offers from Tennessee, Vandy, Wake, Duke, South Carolina, and Virginia.
His commitment date is Thursday, 10/29.
Would make a nice SS or FS imo
For reference. I know hes at the top too
Any news on the silent commit or big time flip?
👀
Another CB for VT, this time a VA mid-3* recruit.
That's some developmental potential there.
Related to Ashby
How about Tyra?
Would probably elevate our recruiting.
i'm always intrigued when we see players at ATH and try to prohject where they fit... Banks has a long frame like we've talked about being ideal for modern linebackers -- 6-4 200 is same listing as Keli Lawson
I think Banks and Jaden Keller are LB'ers for us
For what it's worth, there is a rivals article from the Boston College page that says he currently plays QB, wide receiver, and safety but is projected as a linebacker/safety hybrid at the college level.
Also didn't realize he was class of 2022 when I posted it which makes him all the more intriguing to me. Lot of room to grow, in skill development, physical growth, and rankings.
Figure he will add weight over the upcoming years... a 6'4" 225lb backer would be nice to see line up for us again
Have heard some scuttlebutt regarding Tyler Onyedim, 6-3 277, DT class of 21. Currently committed to Iowa State. Hes from Texas. I don't know how to embed. Any intel here? I care deeply about getting our D-line right.
Offer came in yesterday according to 247.
Thx
oh man, if our guys can't land a 3 star from Richmond, this site is gonna go down in flames /s
Flipadelphia
the mother of all references.
For those with concerns about the DT spot in the class of 2021, we just offered this JUCO recruit. Lot of P5 offers from mid-tier SEC and Big 12 schools. Whether this kid ends up at Virginia Tech, who knows? But it seems like we now know what direction the staff is headed.
Also, another CB for Jaden Keller who is set to announce his commitment in about 5 minutes.
One could say he would help a ton. I'll see myself out
That picture on 247 doesn't do his size justice
I wouldn't want him trying to tackle me, that's for sure!
Really hope we land this guy. Talk about carrying your weight well.
Do they not make shirts big enough?
No way that kid is 290lbs. He looks more like 250-260lb range. But regardless give me all of the DTs.....
I dunno - that kid's ARMS look like they weigh 150 pounds.
And... Jaden Keller is officially a HOKIE!
Sweet! At least we beat Wake at something in the last 5 days
Any player that turns down offers from UVA and Tennessee to be a Hokie becomes one of my favorites in my book!
The only team out of his top 7 that is currently in the AP Top 20 (VT, WF, Tennessee, AppState, WKU, CCU, Vandy) is......
Coastal Carolina.
2020 sucks y'all, bring on 2021 already.
Fire in the hole! Let's go!
I'm really liking all of these tall and rangy guys we're signing lately. Watching his highlights, he really fits the description of athlete. Looks like he could play almost any position other than lineman.
Couldn't find the 247 on this thread so here it is for those interested:
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you serious clark?
ah crap I don't know why my control F didn't work... well there it is again
A+ intimidating stare.
I like this kid. He plays angry on both sides of the ball... I see safety.... as a WFT fan I see "ST21"...
If we flip anyone. I like it too be Brandon Buckhaulter. 6-3 220 WR from Flowood Mississippi. Currently a Miss St commit
Looks like we're his 2nd P5 offer
https://www.hudl.com/profile/13630004/Darren-Agu
Positions: TE, DE
Height & Weight: 6'7" 235lbs
Class of: 2022
https://virginiatech.rivals.com/news/new-virginia-tech-football-offer-da...
6'7" tight end you say?
Excited by the prospect of having Fuga and Agu on the same DL...all star names
if only it was Aguf. Could get a palindrome next to each other Fuga Aguf
That's true...where's gobble gobble at?
Agu Fuga is, in fact a palindrome.
Get your logic and reason out of here
I mostly peddle anagrams. Palindromes will cost you extra
Palindrome anagrams to mailed porn.
extra
dabbles in haikus as well.
Agu, Fuga sack
Quarterback limps off the field
Gobble Gobble Bitch
https://twitter.com/RivalsPortal/status/1321907970301710336
any chance we go after this guy - 6'3 305 lbs DT