Top 15! pic.twitter.com/nAKVFWzUE9— Matthew Burrll Jr!! (@__Triumphant) June 5, 2014
Neither Tech or UVa made the cut.
Forums:
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Top 15! pic.twitter.com/nAKVFWzUE9— Matthew Burrll Jr!! (@__Triumphant) June 5, 2014
Neither Tech or UVa made the cut.
Comments
Well tits.
I've always thought of 'tits' as a good thing. Such as: 'that bar was the tits.' I've never heard it used when someone was disappointed but maybe i've got it backwards....
Personally, I've always let the situation dictate whether that term is positive or not.
kinda like:
"man this is good as shit!"
"man this tastes like shit"
edit: English is hard
i can dig that too except for boobs. They're always good IMHO
It really surprises me that Iowa made the list they seem out of place on the list. Didn't seem like he'd be going to VT. Seems like a kid that enjoys the whole recruiting national process and of course can't blame a kid that enjoys it.
Hoping that VT gets back to the perception of being a "big time school" that it seems like Clemson has been enjoying lately. VT needs some big wins to get that spotlight back.
Hoping that Austin Clark commits to the good guys soon.
Beating anOSU will definitely help the big time FOOTBALL school rep.
Is it just me or do we seem to be missing out on a lot more of the higher recruits than normal? I feel like our class is still relatively small compared to what other schools have verbally committed. I know there's a long time until signing day, but it doesn't hurt to get verbal commits.
I don't think they're a lot of scholarships to go around this cycle.
It has not been a very successful start to the recruiting cycle. We are going to heed to win some games and flip some kids.
The "problem" is that we're being very, very selective with prospects this recruiting cycle, especially on offense. In fact, our offensive class will probably end up being around 7-9 players, tops, with maybe 3 or 4 offensive linemen, a tight end or two, maybe a RB, maybe a QB, and 1-3 WRs. So we're going big, and when you go big, you go against high-caliber programs which are incredibly hard to recruit against, especially when a kid seems pretty set on heading out of state (which I totally get, being a CA native. I was leaving that place no matter what. Nothing against it, just wanted a change).
We'll end up with a solid class, and there are plenty of guys on the board. Would it have been awesome to have this guy on board? You bet. However, especially with a brand new O-Line coach, an unproven offensive staff (putting it gently), and an aging coach who, IMO, is in desperate need of a contract extension, it's gonna be hard to bring in top offensive talent, especially up front.
Wait...being selective and recruiting a QB can't happen. we are beyond recruited at qb
That's what I thought too, but still we're recruiting Locksley pretty hard and offering a couple others. Looks like Lefty wants to take at least one QB in each class, if only to make darn sure what happened this year doesn't happen again. Besides, we only got 2 (freshman) QBs this past year. After this year, we'll have a total of 4. One senior, one junior, two sophomores. The next year, we're back down to three. A guy gets injured or decides to transfer, and we're up a creek. Taking a QB this year ain't no bad thing.
I agree.. no matter how stacked, I would still take a decent QB every class
Thats a non-story. Burrell was never high on Tech . VT will be fine. Good luck to the young man.
I'll disagree with your first statement. It is a story. A mandate of Beamer Co. is to own the Commonwealth of Virginia in recruiting. Burrell is a top player in the state and had an offer from Tech. Tech not making his Top-15 is a whiff, no matter the reason.
However, I don't think it's time to panic. It's just June, and there's a long time until NSD.
Some players want to stay in-state while others want to go out-state. The Hokies cant help the fact they are in Blacksburg. The coaching staff cant change a mind thats already made up. The program should welcome players that want to be there or it wont work out in the future. IMO.
Oh well, moving on.
Seriously... we're 9 months away from signing day, and we aren't going to sign a huge class this year. PLENTY of time for our coaches to get their guys, which they certainly will.
This time last year, our recruiting outlook couldn't have looked more grim, even with Da'Shawn Hand appearing to be a VT lock (and we all saw how that ended up). By the time the class was over, we had one of the best overall classes we've ever signed from top to bottom.
Yes, one of our best overall classes which would've been hands-down the best if we managed to land a couple of the top in-state recruits that year.
But did we even land a top 5 VA recruit? Landing Nnadi was crucial after we failed to get Hand, but both went out of state in the end.
People are going to go out of state, especially when you're "struggling" as a program and you have an aging coach, which is why Beamer needs a contract extension right now. I'm not saying he needs to stay here another 4 years past 2016, but Whit needs to put together a piece of paper saying, "hey, look, we want you to stick around and we're gonna pay you to coach football for another four years, and then the four years after that, and then the four years after that." Give him a little clause that says he can retire whenever (with, say, a few months' notice) and boom, ESPN can report that Beamer has signed a contract extension through 2020, and we won't have to deal with that issue (as much) for the next couple recruiting classes. Win 10 games this year (and maybe a big one or two) on top of that, and we're right back in the driver's seat.
Waitin' on you, Whit.
#Whitness
i think beating ohio state and then presumably free shellfish u in charlotte would do more good than frank getting another extension.
That would help immensely, but you can bet other coaches are reminding recruits that there's a real chance (which, to be fair, there is) that he won't be coaching past their r-Fr year. Getting a little more wiggle room there would help deal with one of the biggest negative recruiting tools opposing coaches have against VT.
I don't get the feeling that Beamer is going to retire anytime soon, and I doubt that Whit would force him out unless our offense brings us down to UVA levels. But I could be wrong, and I trust that Whit would find the best option for the program. I didn't even think of that as a factor in a recruit's eyes, but I see your point.
Also, I agree that winning big games is probably one of the best recruiting tools. Losing to Boise St killed me (and killed our players as well as seen in the next game they played).
The first two weeks of the 2010 season were quite possibly one of the worst in VT football history that still lingers on in recruiting today. The next 11 weren't too bad, though :).
It was technically only one week, Boise was on a Monday.
But then there was a week of suffering after The Game That Must Not Be Named. Until recording that first W, life was pretty rough.
I'm gonna say that's a non issue for the recruits we need. Yea it does matter, but doesn't matter in why there have been 0 5* recruits since Tyrod Taylor. (It probably helped with Fuller, but there's a lot of family ties here already)
These days coaches aren't going to last the entire 4 years all the time. You have to feel what the University is going to do. What are the ambitions of the AD and the program
Top 300 Players this Year with a new coach Texas - 6, Penn State - 7 (3rd Coach in 4 years), USC - 4 (4th in 5 years) and Tennessee - 3 (3rd coach in 5 years) , a new coach is just as easy to fire in the next 2-3 years
See the Basketball Program for what's coming after 2 great seasons of football at the end of 2016. Not great, see the basketball program
Take a look at every single one of those programs, and what do you see? Big tradition, big budgets, big-time college football reputations. Tech doesn't have that. We've got Frank Beamer, the legend himself. If you take away the promise of playing for Frank after 2 years, Tech doesn't have a whole lot to offer in comparison to some of these bigger schools. If Frank is gonna stick around, he needs to have a contract in place that will let him stick around for a long time (and able to opt out of it at any time, but we'll keep that part on the DL). Frank Beamer is one of our school's biggest recruiting weapons, but the older he gets, the more of a negative recruiting weapon he can be for opponents.
Who gives a shit?
I mean, I don't mean to sound rude, but at VT, (and ESPECIALLY on the VT defense) we have a very long and established history of getting guys who don't light up the recruiting rankings on defense and get them to play well and above their heads while they're here. Bud Foster has made a career out of coaching up guys like Vince Hall, the Adibi brothers, Cody Grimm, etc, who came in undersized for their positions, and didn't necessarily have the top flight star status others did and turned them into collegiate studs.
Do I care that we lost Nnadi and Hand? Not really, because I know for a fact that the guys Bud brought in are more than capable of playing at the high velocity that is required out of them by Virginia Tech. Our individuals might not have the names that some other programs do, but at the end of the day, VT will statistically be in the Top 10 of most, if not all, defensive categories.
What DOES excite me about recruiting right now is what we're doing on offense. We brought in more 4* talent across the offensive unit as a whole than we might have brought in over the last 5 years combined, and that kind of recruiting doesn't appear to be letting up anytime soon. We're also bringing in guys to play OL who actually played OL throughout their young careers. We brought in 2 stud power running backs to compliment the 3 stud QBs that we brought in to compete for playing time.
We can wring our hands all day long and worry about the guys we're not getting, but why do that? If they don't want to come here, fuck em. Move on and look forward to the guys that WILL be here, and enjoy the play of the ones that do sign. If you start dwelling on 'what could have been' in recruiting, you're going to be perpetually miserable.
I give a shit because recruiting is kind of important if your goal is to win a national championship. Let's face it, FSU, Auburn, and Alabama recruit much, much better than us, and guess who's winning championships? Others, such as Clemson are recruiting well too, and they are starting to see results by winning in big games.
I'm not interested in convincing myself of a false reality that we are recruiting on par with other schools. Real knowledge leads to real solutions, and convincing ourselves otherwise is great if your only goal is to give yourself fleeting moments of comfort midst the disappointment that you create when we lose a big game.
I'm not perpetually miserable, I'm stating the reality that we need to start winning the recruiting battle on our own turf in order to compete for national championships.
You know who else recruits better than us regularly? UVa and Miami. You pull out Auburn and FSU as if they've always been these power programs. Auburn went to straight crap from the time after Newton to last season, and they were still recruiting their tails off. And its not like Florida State suddenly started recruiting excellent players last year, they've been a top notch recruiting school for a very, very long time, including the years we were running buckshot through the ACC every single season.
We had 2 down years with an offense that bottomed out. THAT is why we aren't the VT we were before. Has nothing to do with the fact that we're not landing numerous 5* players every single year. Our depth at the skill positions went straight to shit after being mediocre to begin with. Hell, our offense was barely competent as it was when we were dominating the ACC. But our defense ALWAYS held its own over the course of the year, even with guys who weren't 5* once in a decade player at their position. And guess what, that hasn't changed. You pair a competent offense, with talent at the skill positions that can do their jobs and do it well (which we haven't had since the Michael Vick days, to be brutally honest), and the talent doesn't even have to be elite, it just needs to be effective, and we're going to get up there with the likes of Auburn, Florida State, Alabama, etc in the style of our play, without even needing to recruit like those schools. And guess what, we loaded up on the positions we needed to last year offense (but nobody really cares for that because we missed out on these elite defensive players in the state (in spots where we rarely ever land elite players because the style we play doesn't really make great NFL prospects for those positions... but I digress)).
At Virginia Tech, the whole has ALWAYS been greater than the sum of its parts, and thats a VERY important thing, because it eliminates the need for elite players to make your program relevant. I don't want to be in a position where we need a player like Jameis Winston in our system to win games. I love the fact that year after year, we can take high end 3* players, redshirt them, and plug and play without missing a beat. It doesn't matter who the defensive linemen are, it doesn't matter who the linebackers are, we're going to disrupt everything the offense is trying to do, and we're going to put ourselves in a position to win the game. I don't want a team that relies on a bunch of individuals winning 1 on 1 battles throughout games. I want a team where our TEAM outworks the hell out of your team over 60 minutes en route to a win.
We're not going to win every recruiting battle, especially for high profile guys, nor should we. We find the right guys for our program. If we should happen to land a big name player, GREAT, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it if we don't, because at the end of the day, I still like the team we have, and in the end, thats all that matters.
Okay, so tell me of a program that won the BCS national championship that the general consensus agreed regularly recruits below the top 10 schools annually. You need top coaches and top recruits to be the best team, and I agree that we have the top defensive coaches, but it helps tremendously to have the superior talent on our side of the field, as it does in every other sport. Unlike UVA and Miami, we have a good program with good coaches. Recruiting well could take us from being an above average team, to one that competes for national championships. It confounds me that you attribute the offense bottoming out to a lack of talent at offensive skill positions, but you don't see a big correlation between recruiting and winning games.
I like the team we have too, but I believe that we are capable of more. I really enjoy the ACC titles we have, but VT should strive for continuous improvement. I think we have different views in that regard, but I would enjoy seeing VT finally win a national championship and prove the haters wrong. Winning the recruiting battle is the first step and the foundation in getting us going in the right direction.
Remind me... how did we recruit on offense last year? Or did you miss that part while still focusing on your little rant that we cannot get enough elite defensive prospects to play in positions where we have built the program to not need elite players?
Look, if you were complaining about missing out on elite prospects on offense... sure, but you're not. You're complaining about missing out on defense, when we have a defense that routinely lands in the Top 5-10 every single year. But of course, you're not mentioning the fact we can't get offensive players, because we just did it last year.
If you think we recruited top 10 offensive talent for the 2014 recruiting cycle...then I just don't know what to tell you. Although he's from Florida, Javon Harrison was supposed to be the jewel of that class, and it cannot be understated how much of an impact he would've had on our program. Other than that, yes we didn't miss on a lot of offensive in-state talent because, for the most part, it didn't exist (apart from Moss, Blanding, and Kamara, who were thoroughbreds). The obvious misses last year were on the wealth of defensive in-state talent, and it was only an example of how our recruiting needs to improve on both sides of the ball.
But isn't that part of the problem.
I think Javon's impact can be understated b/c he has never played a CFB down in his life.
Not to mention, that in that same class where there is woe regarding Harrison, there is Joy regarding Cam Phillips, Kendrick Holland, and Isiah Ford. I have seen Cam Phillips play and he will be an impact player. He had the most excited about WR even when Javon was still in the fold.
Offensive recruiting has improved greatly in the past two years. 2014 signees include four 4* d talents. The only thing the 2014 class is actually missing is a Fuller. The 2014 class is one of the more well rounded top to bottom classes VT has had in quite a while.
I'm not trying to downplay the talent that we got, but to give you an idea of what we are competing against, Javon Harrison was like FSU's third best receiver they signed. Essentially, there is still a gulf of talent in between us and teams that contend for championships, and patting ourselves on the back like the OP was for our "best overall class" in years which still is around 25-30th in the country, is a bit premature and kind of ignoring that fact given all the recruiting misses we are having.
Edit: And yeah, Isaiah Ford was a really good pickup.
Edit2: West Virginia pulled in a similar class as we did in terms of talent - and they got some talented receivers out of Florida.
I see your point...and I don't really have a dog in this fight anyway...but I'm pretty sure EVERY football program in the country has several recruiting misses every year. We're not the only team missing out on guys
Would not a perennial top-25 team (Which VT is) usually have a top-25 recruiting class?
You keep saying we have built this defense to not need elite players. Why is it, then, that it's creator spends so much of his time recruiting elite players?
Your rationale would make total sense if all we did was recruit 3 star players. That is increasingly not the case.
If you think we will ever recruit as well as FSU, Florida, Alabama and OSU then you are living in a dream world.
Maybe, but you would have said that about Kentucky and Ole Miss a few years ago too.
You seem to be posting recruiting rants pretty regularly. If you really feel that way, that it doesn't matter who we will get, then it may be time to just tune out of recruiting discussions. It is clear that you believe whoever we get will perform and who we don't, who cares. That's a healthy mindset, but you can't force it on others.
For those of us who follow recruiting, it's disconcerting to see more and more of our top targets falling off the board. Frankly, this is likely just the beginning. We are at least 3 recruiting cycles away from Beamer retiring, and until he does, that dark cloud of uncertainty of transition will be hanging over our heads. It's a topic for discussion, how do we mitigate this issue? The other issues, our two straight lackluster seasons, the concern over the NFL translation of Bud's scheme, the three-digit offensive rankings, are minor compared to the looming transition impact to our recruiting.
I say my piece cause I thinks its ridiculous people are wringing their hands this much over high school kids 9 months before signing day, and its REALLY unhealthy as a fanbase to be hyper-evaluating a recruiting class 3 quarters of a year before signing day. If these kids sign with us, great. If they don't, so be it. At the end of the day, the recruiting class we bring in will be an improvement over what we have seen in the past. Will it be as good as some want it to be? Absolutely not. Will we miss out on players? Of course. We will swing someone to our side after they were a verbal somewhere else? Yep.
Will we know any of the above before January? Highly unlikely. To be honest, we really shouldn't worry about recruiting at all until at the very least we're halfway through the football season. Too much time between now and when it matters. Let the coaches do their jobs without putting public pressure on them with countless 'OMG SOMEONE LEFT US OUT OF THEIR TOP 5 WE MUST PANIC. WHY DOES OUR COACHING STAFF SUCK AT RECRUITING SO MUCH!' It may sound silly, but sometimes internet mindsets go viral and overwhelm a fanbase and you very easily could see a fanbase that is unhappy with a coaching staff for not having a great class in August with the pressure getting overwhelming to sign a high profile player immediately, and it causes other recruits to take notice, and potentially drive them away, or even worse yet, negatively impact the coaching search whenever Frank Beamer decides to retire. It might sound silly, but irrational fanbases do happen (NC State) and its an absolute cancer on an athletic department when it does, that takes decades to overcome.
Having a rational discussion about why we are having a hard time landing the top in-state talent and panicking/hyper-evaluating/hand-wringing are not the same thing. What's ridiculous, and a tad ironic, is the thousands of words and dramatic language you've used telling everyone to chill out.
Edit: I'll add that I basically agree with what you're saying. I'm thrilled with the recruiting class we just landed and I'm not about to start worrying about this one. But there have been a number of great players from Virginia we've targeted and missed on, and I just don't see what's so egregious about discussing that.
When you're melting down about missing out on a recruit in early June, I don't care what you want to call it, that is hyper-evaluating and hand-wringing over the subject. If you want to have this rational discussion, I'm all for it, but lets wait til after this class plays out before we evaluate whether or not these new coaches can bring in elite players.
Did it suck we missed out on Nnadi and Hand last year? Yes, but at that same time shoring up the offense was BY FAR our biggest area of concern, and the coaching staff knocked that job out of the park. Anything on defense with last year's class (mind you, Holland Fisher still counts towards it, so the whole 'we can't land elite prospects on defense based on last year's class' thing does ring a little hollow when you're bringing in the #1 recruit in the state... just a year late.)
I think our views on recruiting are probably very similar. I just don't see anyone "melting down."
Sorry, I would hardly say the coaches "knocked it out of the park" in regards to our offensive recruiting this past year. Look I'm as excited as the next guy about the recruits' potential but across the board it was about the same as every year; a couple of 4 stars and mostly 3 stars. I don't think we landed a recruit who was Top 15 at their position but I could be wrong. I mean we did a solid job by getting some good looking RBs and WRs but they were still ranked in the 20s or higher at their position. I think we are slowly upgrading our talent but let's be honest, that's not saying a whole lot...
We've got a few years to go to where we're able to get back in the national conversation consistently. I think this discussion about our recruiting issues is legit, we're getting better in how we're going about it but I think we're still waiting to see us take a few steps forward by actually landing some top-tier talent.
I'd say the recruiting in the last year was better than we've seen for the long time. "Out of the park" may be a bit strong, but I'd say they did one of the better jobs that I can remember. Why? Because they recruited guys at their natural position. So what if they were "only" top-20? That's a pretty high spot to be on the national level. Consider that if our offense was even top-50 last year, we probably would have been in a BCS bowl with the way our D played.
The main difference I see is that coaches are filling position needs with players who play that position. Too long we had the mantra of "TEs can play anywhere on the line and Athletes can move interchangeably between RB, QB, and WR." No, not any more. We're recruiting OL players to play specific OL positions. Maybe they'll change over time, but at least it will be theoretically similar. We're no longer just kicking out "spare" QBs to play WR; we're getting 4* WRs from high school and putting them where they know how to play. That, I think, is a major difference worth talking about.
Oh I totally agree, and that's what I meant when I said I think we're getting better about how we're going about recruiting: by going after guys who actually played the position in HS. But the reality is, we still got mostly 3 star guys, even our 4 star guys could be considered borderline 4 stars because I don't think any of them were consensus 4 stars across the major recruiting sites.
I don't want to come down on the guys we signed because I AM excited about them and I do believe they are generally an upgrade over the past couple of years. But I'm under know illusion that they are the type of talent we need to consistently bring in in order to get back to being a perennial Top 15 team. In the future we need those guys to be our depth not necessarily our starters, that's just the blunt truth. I think a few of them can be "diamonds in the rough" and become college stars but we need more than that.
Look at what we had in the past; David Wilson or Ryan Williams or Tyrod Taylor those guys were all Top 10 at their positions. I think everyone would agree we need more than 1 or 2 of those type of guys every few years in order to be where we want to be.
I find it ridiculous when people throw out the "well he wasn't in even in the top 10/15/20 of his position." Considering that there are probably thousands of kids that play that position in high schools across the country, I'd say he's doing just fine. But for the sake of argument, let's look at only those who were evaluated/ranked. 247 rated 204 RBs for last year's class. Shai was rated as the 16th best RB. This puts him in in the 92nd percentile of RBs in the country. That's pretty damn good. Even if you are rated 40th at RB, you're in the 80th percentile. That's nothing to scoff at. Too much stock is placed in the number of the ranking and not the quality of the player.
That's a great point, turkey leg for you. I guess my point is more that the consistent top programs that we aim to compete with regularly ARE pulling in guys that are in the Top 10/15/20 at their positions. Maybe my logic is flawed but I would think that if we want to compete with them then we need to be bringing in at least half of the same caliber players that they are.
To continue playing devil's advocate; that was Shai's highest ranking, ESPN ranked him as the #52 RB. Which you're right, in the grand scheme of things is pretty damn good. Just not so great for us if he's one of our best recruits that year and we're looking to get back to being a Top 15ish team.
I think part of Alum's issue is that everyone gets sour about recruiting when Hand or NNadi don't sign with VT, but they don't get just as excited when we flip Isaiah Ford or Durkin. Or some complain that our offense is a reason we can't recruit 4 and 5* talent, yet we actually got two (2)... TWO... four star WR's, and two 4* TB's in last years class.
When is the last time VT signed two 4* WR's in one class? I truly can't think of when, if ever.
I could be wrong about Alum's thoughts, but...
No, you're right.
People freak out because we don't land all these elite defensive prospects, while ignoring the fact we just incredibly amped up our offensive recruiting to more than satisfy our #1 biggest area of need, that has been an area of need for a very long time. Too much "omg we didn't get Hand/Nnadi" and not enough "holy shit, look at this class we brought in". And what blows my mind most is that people are freaking out over missing out on guys at positions we have specifically schemed to NOT need elite players while ignoring the fact we loaded up at positions where we've been screaming for a decade need great players. This coaching staff just can't win with some people, and it gets frustrating to read over and over and over again.
You are consistently downplaying that it would be better to get better recruits. No, we do not NEED elite recruits at some positions, but it still doesn't hurt to have them. We have an empty trophy case, getting elite recruits is what would help fix that, and if you disagree that's just being ignorant.
I understand. I always value recruiting in terms of fit, more than stars.
VT has really ramped up recruiting. Back when VT never went into Florida, or Penn, we could focus on the in state guys. And nothing but the in state guys. Gave them so much love, no OOS could compare. Now we are chasing big fish. Against even bigger competition.
Maybe I'm strange, but I think VT recruiting has taken tremendous steps forward. High star WR's, not just high star ATH's converting to WR. Actual High School WR's. True QB's competition with potentially four viable starters. Tackle's who were actually tackles. Not converted TE's.
Im excited about the progress. Its coming along, if you look deeper than just who ya got vs. who ya didn't.
Do you read TSL? Did you post there?
I'm wondering where this frustration comes from. I don't see it at TKP. This has always been a community for reasonable discussion. You have come in all hot and bothered about people "freaking out" where it is very difficult to identify your concern. At least in this forum.
Read TSL? Post over there?
I don't think this is accurate:
but they don't get just as excited when we flip Isaiah Ford or Durkin
Especially not here.
Maybe not on TKP. This site is generally level headed, which is why I enjoy it over all others.
But I would argue, that TKP is also not representative of the fanbase on the whole.
"TKP is also not representative of the fanbase on the whole"
Unfortunately, this is sad but true. For years my wife worked as a server and bartender which led her to hate gamedays. She used say that Hokie fans were the worst, always screaming and whining at the televisions and just acting foolishly. Most of her co-workers agreed. I have tirelessly worked to change her opinion with much success.
Each and every one of us should work to make the rest of our fanbase more like the TKP community. I no longer visit other VT-centric sports sites so I sometimes forget that not every Hokie is wise to our community. We should all strive to teach wayward Hokies our ways. Show them how much better it feels to support and encourage our team and appreciate all of the good things that we sometimes take for granted instead of complaining about past failures and tearing down players for not being perfect. TKP has changed how I view VT football immensely and also led to a deepening of my love for VT as a whole.
Without a community like TKP it is easy to forget how fortunate we are to be Hokies, so I try to remind those that I come across and introduce them to this site. I mean, can you imagine being a Wahoo and spending your time on TheSabre? (*shudders, fights to keep lunch where it currently resides*) I lurked for quite a while before finally making a profile, but in that time I have seen numerous new faces pop up. Some arrive quietly and respectfully, some kick the door in and shit on the rug. Eventually, some get filtered out, but most eventually "get it" and the community rolls along, being ever-respectful and level-headed. I'd like to think that we can work towards bringing the real world closer to our TKP world.
I had no idea I would ramble like this and get a bit too mushy when I started typing. If you find this too rah rah and/or saccharine, then I apologize. Anyway, I now I have to go do manly things using only my man hands, brawn, and buried emotions.
Love this post !
sip... refill...repeat
sip...refill...repeat
then go join her in bed!!! That's what I do every night!!
Don't tell the people of another VT site that (and I'm not talking about TSL or HokieHaven.) Some people would rather win a recruiting national championship than a real one. Plus they are basically already giving up on this years cycle when like you said it is 9 months away from Signing Day.
It is 9 months away and, as we saw last year, you can discover new recruits later in the game and pull together good classes.
That said, it's about ROI. Our investment are the in-state kids we have been working for years. We have strong relationships with them and their coaches. The more in-state kids you land, the better shape you are for those instate teammates to follow. This is a clear Beamer philosophy. Right now, the return on our investment looks bleak for this cycle. Why? What can be done? Are these systemic issues or one-offs? In the ever-changing world of recruiting, what do we need to change? These are all valid discussions to be had.
What cycles has our return on Virginia talent NOT been bleak? We've not recruited VA 'well' in the last ten years. Twice we took half the top ten (2012 and 2005), almost every other year we batted 20% or less, which is our hard ceiling for top 10 VA kids this year.
In fact, of the 5 top 10 players we snagged in 2012, 4 of them are significant contributors now. An 80% success rate. Of the 2005 class, we took 5 of the top 10 and 3 were significant contributors; even though the other two washed out due to an injury and some off-the-field issues. The last time we snagged multiple top-5 kids in state? Logan Thomas and David Wilson. Our coaches are incredible evaluators and developers of talent; imagine if they had significant top-10 in Virginia quality talent to work with. Since 2003 we've had a 58.3% success rate among the top-10 VA recruits we've actually pulled in, assuming "success" means significant contribution. That's really, really high.
We will be EXCEEDINGLY lucky to pull two of those top-10 kids this year. If we do, though, and grab another body or two for depth, I'd be happy with our DL recruiting this year for sure.
I agree, and this is pretty much my point on why it's a problem that we're missing out on a high percentage of them. I really should've made a post like yours in this thread, because it illustrates a problem backed up with actual data. Jonathan Allen would've been a beast as a Hokie, that is a fact. Well, hopefully we can land more of them in the future.
Jon Allen would have been the perfect prototypical speed rusher in Bud's D. But he wasn't actually a Virginia boy, he grew up in Bama and wanted to play for the hometown team.
Ah, my mistake. I thought he was from VA.
We aren't the only team struggling in state. Last year arguably our top 3 recruits (Keihn, McKenzie, Isaiah Ford) all came from OOS and were all solid 4 star players.
This is something I think people are not realizing. The way we communicate has drastically changed. 15 years ago no one had a cell phone and long distance communication was expensive or time consuming. Now you can call your family for free and talk as much as you want, whenever you want. You can "see" them whenever you want with Skype. I'm sure quite a few recruits snagged by in-state schools family was a bigger recruiting factor than what the school could offer.
Before a kid who wanted to stay close to family went to UVa or VT because they were the two best choices for football, education, and path to the NFL while being close to home for this state, especially the 757. Now with how connected everyone and everything is going an extra couple hours away isn't that big of a deal. Couple that with how much easier it is to stay in touch and contact recruits, you get a lot of kids going out of state.
USC being 0-7 in top CA talent would have been unheard-of five years ago. All the more reason to take a step back, realize it's not just us, and keep on pluckin' kids from PA, NJ, MD, NC, etc. with a few guys from the Commonwealth as well.