A Roster of Tech's Top Recruits since 2000

Maybe it's the offseason cabin fever, I don't know. But, I thought it'd be cool to look at what an "all time" Tech starting lineup would look like using recruiting rankings. ("All Time" is in quotes because recruiting rankings really only date back to 2001.) I get a lot of people replying to me on twitter (@Sam_TKP) with the "ranking don't matter!" schtick and, quite frankly, I tend to agree...to a certain extent.

So, I wanted to see what it would look like if you took the top rated recruit at every position (using the 247 Composite) and made an "all time" VT recruiting roster. Some prefaces:

-Not a lot of recruits are listed as a "Center", so I just added in one extra guard position.
-I listed 2 RB's and 3 WR's
-If a player was listed as one position but was immediately moved to another when on campus, i listed them at the position they played at Tech
-0.9850 and greater is a 5*, 0.8901 and above is a 4*
-4/3 defense

Positions - Name - Recruiting Class - 247 Rating

QB - Tyrod Taylor - '07 - 0.9914
Hokie legend. Best QB career in school history.
RB - Kevin Jones - '01 - 0.9992
#1 recruit in the country. 2nd most career rushing yards at Tech.
RB - RyanWilliams - '08 - 0.9787
Rushed for 1,655 yds. in 2009.
WR - Fred Lee - '01 - 0.9683
Didn't do much of anything.
WR - Richard Jefferson - '00 - 0.9629
Another WR bust in the early 2000's
WR - Joel Caleb - '12 - 0.9519
Never could find a place on the field in that horrid offensive system.
TE - Bucky Hodges - '13 - 0.9409
Moved from QB early. Great career. (Honorable mention for James Mitchell)
OT - Aaron Brown - '06 - 0.9415
Eh.
OT - Vinston Painter - '08 - 0.9331
Absolute Beast. Great Tech and NFL career.
OG - Tripp Carroll - '03 - 0.9341
Left the team.
OG - Doug Nester - '19 - 0.9519
Will henceforth and forever be referred to as "Dougie Fresh".
OG - Wyatt Teller - '13 - 0.9301
Moved from DE. Great hair. Solid rookie season with the Bills.

DE - Ken Ekanem - '12 - 0.9285
The Bell Cow of the LPD before Ricky Walker made it cool.
DE - Zach McCray - '10 - 0.9219
Barely saw the field.
DT - Tim Settle - '15 - 0.9512
Was a beast in the middle. Solid rookie year with the Redskins.
DT - Kris Harley - '11 - 0.9315
Transferred from program.
LB - Deveon Simmons - '05 - 0.9631
Transferred from program. One of the biggest busts in Tech recruiting history.
LB - Dax Hollifield - '18 - 0.9376
The new Bell Cow?
LB - Dylan Rivers - '17 - 0.9045
Developing into a really nice player. Big hitter.
CB - Kendall Fuller - '13 - 0.9923
Lockdown.
CB - Victor "Macho" Harris - '05 - 0.9817
Electric. Pick six against ECU in 2007 is one of the most memorable plays in school history.
S - Devon Hunter - '17 - 0.9799
The best is yet to come....
S - Holland Fisher - '13 - 0.9738
Ugh.

K - Cody Journell - '09 - 0.8351
I mean, he could kick well?
P - Oscar Bradburn - '17 - 0.8243
Best Australian player in school history. Unquestioned face of the program.
LS - Oscar Shadley - '18 - 0.8158
If you never know the name of your team's long snapper, he's doing a great job.

The conclusion? High recruiting rankings don't always relate to on field success. For the Hokies, it seems pretty 70/30. Defensively, the Hokies have been great at developing high talent guys into star college players. Offensively? Yikes. To be fair, OL is the hardest thing to project in recruiting. And WR is largely based on the state of the current roster; big programs have lots of guys who are fast and can catch. Here's to hoping the newer top end recruits will be part of the success stories.