Im home!!! @CoachPryVT @TylerBowen @CoachShawnQuinn @HokiesFB pic.twitter.com/tCR903bBkM— Zeke Wimbush (@zekewimbush7) December 19, 2022
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Im home!!! @CoachPryVT @TylerBowen @CoachShawnQuinn @HokiesFB pic.twitter.com/tCR903bBkM— Zeke Wimbush (@zekewimbush7) December 19, 2022
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My goodness that's a lot of stats. IIRC that's a decent league he's in, too. Good size, great get!
Stone Bridge lost in the State Semifinal game this year to eventual champion Highland Springs, so it's definitely a good program.
Oh good he can pass, that's important in our TEs
Either they are shuffling their personnel a lot, or they run the most interesting offense ever. I hope it's latter.
This could be a conversation for another thread... but this begs the question, how many "project" type players should we take in a particular class? Obviously VT will always have to have some level of "coach em up" in each class to remain competitive, but we also cannot have every member of the class be a long term project.
This guy looks like he could be a contributor with a year or two of college nutrition/lifting.
The question I have that takes precedent over that one is how are these numbers working out. I know they always do but its one new guy after another (and I am loving it) keeps coming in, barring a tsunami into the portal come spring I have a hard time seeing these numbers working out. So I guess a tsunami it will be.
it'll be a tsunami. scholarships guarantee for the spring semester on the first day of spring semester, so expect that to be a busy week all around college football.
this was definitely an issue with previous staff -- strong emphasis on "development" but few results and too many projects meant always feeling like we were behind the 8-ball in terms of roster depth
this and next offseason specifically i think it makes a ton of sense to take fliers on guys that are culture fits, help with longer term recruiting strategy, can be proof-of-concept types moving forward, etc. Because there is no cap on the incoming players (previously it was 25), it means staff can bring in guys that they think are better fits than what is already on this roster and seriously overhaul the make of the team on the fly. Only need to abide by the 85 scholly limit. and because of the one-time immediate eligibility, players who don't stick or don't pop will wind up moving on.
All of this aligns with the signalling and messaging we've been getting from Pry and Whit about the timetable of the rebuild here. It's not microwaving success to try and find some studs in the portal with a year of eligibility to try and win 9 games in year 2 like Mel Tucker did, it's about overhauling the entire program. Part of that means getting the recruiting machine firing on all cylinders to have long term sustainability by repairing, building, and maintaining important relationships. Part of that means establishing the culture in the locker room. Part of that means (yes) the coaching staff learning on the fly in roles that are new to them.
Whether or not the plan is ultimately successful remains to be seen, but there's no "year one in year five" because of the amount of roster churn we are going to see this and next off-season. By 2024, this roster is Pry's and he appears to be owning that and we need to see some results on the field. Everything we've seen and read points to the program goals being where we want it to be and being able to sustain it moving forward by 2025.
Kid sounds like a Sam Rogers. Give him a year in the weight room and he'll find his way on to the field. Kid just seems like a football player, some things you can't teach or develop.
I'll take a roster full of highland springs and stone bridge kids all day
Supposedly Loren Johnson said he's a bigger faster stronger version Sam Rogers 😬
Rolling ball of butcher knives -> wrecking ball of samurai swords?
An Epcot of Masamune's?
I ran into Sugar Shane a couple weeks after Rogers got to campus. Shane was raving about him. Told me "you are going to love this kid". They knew early on he could play.
I know it's a weird thing to say but it's been a while since I've looked at our team and said "damn we have some football players on our team". Guys like Orion Martin, Sam, Boykin, Cody Grimm, Jack Tyler, Bruce Taylor. None of them are freaks of nature, but they knew how to play the game and loved doing it.
Are you suggesting we're getting some "football players" (I know what you mean - just emphasizing the point with the quotes) on the team now? Or that you just haven't seen it and want to see it again?
Another factor is that Stone Bridge is one of the premier programs in the state. Probably more willing to take a chance on a player if it helps VT's standing at a place where we'd like to get more players.
That said, the fact that Zeke did a little bit of everything makes him pretty intriguing to me. If he played multiple positions in high school, I'd think you might be able to see some quick development just by focusing on a single position and getting all your reps there.
If you are taking "projects" from inside the state. I prefer them from powerhouse programs, ie Stone Bridge, Highland Springs, Salem, Oscar Smith, Freedom, Phoebus. I wouldn't be surprised to see him be an all acc player before he leaves. Athletic TE/H with Wildcat potential as well. Great pick up.
We need to be "project-ing" him to be an NFL player, that's the attitude we need to have.
It's a good question. Also depends on what you consider a 'project' - there's different types of projects:
Personally, I think you should have a clear vision for how a guy can contribute before offering him. If you want him to be a swiss army knife (a la Sam Rogers), that's okay, but your offense needs to have a hybrid role built in (eg; half back). Even Reggie Bush, one of the most versatile players in the history of the sport, had a position. Even on Defense - Kyle Fuller was the ultimate hybrid safety/linebacker, but Foster's defense had that role. The 'we'll figure out what he'll be when he gets here' strategy feels like it doesn't often work out.
Off season - off topic but....
That whole saying was never a bad thing, but somehow got shortened over time to have a negative context.
edit: I just wiki'd this and I've been lead astray apparently that last sentence is not original
I'll take us further off topic - there's a great book called Range by David Epstein that is all about why it's better to be a jack of all trades rather than a Master of One.
Yep! I've said it before -give me someone with a medium knowledge of many things rather than an expert at one in MOST cases. (The exception is things like brain surgery and extremely specialized jobs), You can train someone who has broad knowledge and ability to learn- I'd take that over a(n) (idiot) savant 9 times out of 10.
Barton Simmons, now the GM at Vanderbilt, used to rave about this book on the Cover 3 Podcast
I remember sitting through a demonstration by the Dean of students office talking about how they wanted students to focus on one or two existing strengths rather than try to develop a broad range of skills. He claimed studies show that your net improvement from doubling down on strengths far outstrips marginal improvements in weak areas. I thought this was really weird at the time but once i got into industry, I really appreciated people who knew their strengths and don't waste anyone else's time claiming an ability just because they had experience trying to be better (but weren't).
Similar to the concept of strengthsfinder. Recognize peoples strengths on your team and play to them. Don't get caught up in trying to fix their weaknesses.
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/254033/strengthsfinder.aspx
Sounds like a good read. I'm going to check it out. On the opposite end, and maybe this isn't suggesting being good at only one thing, but maybe a small set and being a true master at them is also a good thing. I'd guess it depends on the context. Regardless - looking forward to the read and thanks for the recommendation!
No - the point of the book is that by practicing a variety of things, you learn unique ways to attack problems or develop unique viewpoints. For example, Roger Federer grew up playing a variety of sports (Tennis, Soccer, Skiing, etc) - a lot of the muscle memory and footwork developed in those sports translated very well to tennis. Another example is someone who is a decent writer, but is also proficient at data science can be a really good reporter because they can interpret data and then explain it (while most people try to do just one of those things).
There's obviously anti-examples: Tiger Woods did nothing but golf most of his life, and it worked out pretty well for him. But the book makes a pretty good point that for most situations, it's better to be a generalist (or at least someone with a variety skills) than someone who spends their entire life/career focused one thing.
Very cool! Like I said, I'll give it a read! And definitely sounds like I'll enjoy it and lots to get out of it.
Tiger was the first major golfer to cross train. He would lift weights on tournament days. He really broke the mold for what golfer's did and you could see it. On Sunday Tiger always looked strong. I remember at the Open in NY where Michelson hit a tent on the 18th when he only needed a 4 to win and hit a 6. The last 5 or so hole he looked tired and out of breathe. You never saw Tiger like that. Phil started cross training after that.
Also there has been a rise in overuse injuries in kids sports because everyone specializes so early. I have special exercises for my shoulders because swimming over worked part if them and I was having issues. Playing more sports or training differently always helps of not directly to the task at hand.
That's exactly the type of player Beamer lived off of. The only question is, how committed are "project" players to the program. Because if the player thinks they can start right away, and it's an unreasonable expectation, that's a huge problem because they'll get frustrated and leave before seeing the field. I think if you have the ability to coach up players that a huge boon for a program to punch above it's weight. The last administration was absolutely terrible at coaching players up whether they were 2*s or 4*s, but I'd like to see us get back to doing that if we think we have the staff in place to do so.
Also could be he had a much improved senior year, basically a late riser. There's also the possibility he didn't camp much, which usually means lower ratings.
I think it depends on the kid. Bar1990 related a great point about, I don't remember the relationship, but a kid who was looking at what school he was going to go to. He went to a lower tier than he could have gone to because the only way he thought the work was worth it was if he was going to play, and as early as possible. So he went to a school where it was likely to happen sooner rather than later.
Then there's the kids who, if you sit them down and say, hey, we've got this other guy who will start, but you have the physical tools and some of the skills we really want. So here's the types of skills we can help you build and we have this great S&C program, and in 2-3 years, we think you'll not only start but have a chance at being an all-conference player.
Some kids might be happy being the 2nd or 3rd receiver, just seeing how good they can get, enjoy the PT they do get, etc.
Some kids may think they're destined for being a first round pick. Regardless of any of it, I assume a recruiter matches what we can offer to what the kid is looking for. And sometimes things like a good culture might beat out other things also.
I know most of you don't like Coach K, but I remember an article where Duke was recruiting Jabari Parker. Parker talked about how Coach K didn't just try to sell him on stuff the way most other programs did, he sat down with him and ran through a couple things Parker could do better - demonstrating coaching ability and how he could develop Parker into an even better player. And that was one of the biggest things, if I recall correctly, that set Duke apart from other programs in his eyes.
So I think it may help a lot also if we can demonstrate our ability to develop players, rather than just SAY we're going to do it. And based on that tweet from Derek Jones I posted previously about how it's a coach's responsibility to figure out how to properly teach a player since kids need different things (paraphrasing), I do expect that we'll do a better job at developing guys than we've seen in awhile.
I just quickly watched some of his senior season Hudl highlights and I'm trying to figure out why he's rated so low and has no other P5 offers. He looked pretty dominant. Highlight reels can be deceiving, but his senior highlights are plentiful. His stats back that up. He was clearly the best player on his team and so they game-planned him to touch the ball as often as possible in many different scenarios. And his high school is pretty good in Virginia (finished the year ranked 6th according to Max Preps).
Can anyone explain his low offers? Is it that he projects to be TE and isn't 240 lbs already?
Maybe no one else saw his potential at QB the way VT does?
On Zeke's ON3 page, they show what all 4 recruiting sites ranked him. (I don't know if we should load this info for recruits in the future, but I saw they have an embed for this and I thought I'd give it a whirl).
ON3 and 247 basically have the same exact grade for him (their curves are a little different, so the 84 that ON3 gives him is almost identical to the 85 he got from 247). Rivals appears to be pulling his grade down (ESPN hasn't ranked him either, so that might change his grade if/when they do.)
For a do it all kid at a major high school, he seems to be a bit of a newcomer on the recruiting sites. I don't think 247 even had a grade up for him before yesterday.
Rivals appears to not have evaluated him yet. I bet his number goes up to that 84 / 85 range.
Maybe it's my maroon and orange goggles, but it seemed that the coaching staff really wanted him rather than settling because of missing out on others. I haven't watched his film but if the coaching staff really wants him then I'm not concerned about his ranking.
he's just a tweener. If he can block, something you don't see on his highlights, he can be the kind of matchup and planning problem Sam R was...lead blocker, ball carrier, receiver, even wildcat QB. On the first play of his hudl highlights against HSHS, he's running parallel with Braylon Johnson (#8, who projects at safety for VT).
Welcome to the team. May there be smooth sailing.
QB...RB...WR...now a TE. Second coming of BOONE!
That's a guy I was always sad didn't work out at QB. Thought he was going to be a superstar.
He has about 60 lbs to go to be the second coming of BOONE!
I assume VT's dining halls are still great? No problem
Dang our QB room just keeps growing lol
He looks very fast for 6-3 210
This reminds me a little of one of the old school Beamer era recruits (you can actually think Kam Chancellor here). A middling 3* recruit with some promising measurables and some upside. There are probably a myriad of places where he could eventually land from a position standpoint. The great thing is that Pry & Co. aren't shying away from Va kids like this while also working hard on elevating the floor of the recruiting process.
Kam was barely a 3* (I think Rivals might have had him as a 2*!). I remember reading stories when he first showed up on campus. Everyone was wondering who was the jacked dude flying around everywhere. I know it was a different time in recruiting, but I still have no idea how he flew so far under the radar.
He played qb in high school. No one thought about putting him in the secondary.
He reminds me of James Mitchell coming out of high school. I hope he turns out just as good or better!
https://247sports.com/college/virginia-tech/Article/Ezekiel-Wimbush-comm...
He would have been perfect for the Dalton Keene H back role in CJF offense. I am seeing him becoming a YAC threat at TE with those numbers.
He can play whatever position he wants if he can do all that. I would love to see him on defense at the Sam linebacker spot
I was thinking that or DE if he can put on some weight.
All TE->QB jokes aside, I think he's a receiving TE/H all the way. His HS coaches asked him to play QB to get as many touches as possible but he took one for the team there. He doesn't project as a QB at the P5 level and it probably hurt his ratings that he wasn't exclusively catching the ball this year.
This makes a lot of sense since allegedly Loren Johnson put in a really good word with our staff (based on a comment from a diff post). If the kid is a team first kind of player, I want that over anything at this point where culture building is key.
Agreed, plus Stone Bridge is not a school we've had a lot of success recruiting in the past. Building that relationship can't hurt.
We did get a few Wangs though.
Yeah, from the film he basically reminds me of Bucky Hodges. Just a foot shorter.
He's an interesting project/prospect. Let's see what this offensive staff can do with him. Can we actually get him the ball as a TE in the passing game? Corn/Fu couldn't and we couldn't last year consistently. Can he slim up and play outside? Interesting kid here. Stone Bridge is a good program.
Watched his HUDL film. Really like how he plants his foot and gets upfield. Doesn't shy away from contact. Seems like his first burst of speed when getting upfield is really good for his size. Also noted on his recruiting page he was offered by both Air Force Academy and West Point. Has to be good academically and also should be a good kid. That should say something as well. In the me first era with these recruits it also says something to me that he was willing to be a swiss army knife for his team which probably was detrimental to his recruiting.
Zeke the Freak!
Good speed. Catches with his hands. Good size. Makes contested catches and DAMN, he didn't have anyone throwing to him that could lead him at all. Makes some tough catches. I like it.
Probably why they asked him to play QB.
Whever I see that name it reminds me of this old Far Side cartoon.
(In case the linkie doesn't work, it's a sleeping dog, halfway in his dog house, with his right front leg resting on a chainsaw. A stranger is reaching over to pet the dog, and presumably the dog's owner, who is standing behind the stranger, says, "I wouldn't do that mister....ol' Zeke's liable to fire that sucker up!")
Can you write a book that's just descriptions of Far Side cartoons? Because I would read that.
Awesome description. I got you fam.
He's Gray shirting per Bitter
Pollard is playing this year, right?