For months, the Hokies didn't think they had any chance at landing running back Robert Washington of the Southlake Christian Academy in Huntersville, N.C.
Washington is one of the most highly sought after RB prospects in the nation, rated a 4-star recruit by the 247Sports Composite rankings, and is currently fielding more than 40 offers from FBS schools.
It's possible Tech's staff thought that they might be out of the running to land Washington before his recruitment even started to progress in earnest. But that all changed in a hurry when Washington made it clear he'd like a look at Virginia Tech.
"Shane (Beamer) visited us a couple times before, but Tech had yet to offer," said Bobby McLaughlin, Washington's head coach at Southlake. "Then Robert reached out to me and said 'what about Virginia Tech?' He initiated it."
McLaughlin is well aware of the national attention his star player has garnered, so that request took him a bit by surprise.
"I thought he wasn't interested in them, especially with all the other offers he has," McLaughlin said. "But after he let me know, I went to Shane and told him, and from there it didn't take them long to connect."
Once that mutual interest was established, the Hokies extended an offer in mid-November, giving Washington a chance to seriously consider a program that he believes has some major upside.
"They just have such a great tradition at running back, with guys like David Wilson," Washington said. "And they're only two hours away from me, it's a really quick drive."
Washington has also heard plenty about Tech's virtues from a pair of 2015 signees that hail from his home state.
"Mook (Reynolds) and I, we work out together, so I see him all the time," Washington said. "Adonis (Alexander) too, he and I have been playing together since we were eight-years-old."
Washington didn't wait long after he received the offer to check out Blacksburg in person. He headed to Tech with a few other Southlake players and his dad, who's also an assistant coach at the school, and got his first experience in Lane Stadium watching the Hokies beat UVA on November 28.
"The stadium was packed, and they played their hearts out," Washington said. "I got to talk to Coach (Shane) Beamer, got to watch the players warm up on the field."
Since then, the Hokies have tried to entice him to get back on campus, to no avail. Washington was taking his ACT the day of the team's last Junior Day on February 7, but he does say he's "trying to get back there."
Tech's staff will need to keep the pressure on to have any hope of landing him. Among his many offers, Washington says he hears the most from North Carolina, Syracuse, Ohio State, Florida, Notre Dame, TCU, Cal, Arizona and Arkansas.
Clearly, Washington has the type of talent that demands attention.
"We try to get him the ball any way we can," McLaughlin said. "Other teams stack the box just to stop him because they know how good he is."
That's forced McLaughlin to get creative with Washington, even if it's a bit outside his comfort zone.
"I'm an old school, North Carolina guy, I like to run the ball and play defense, kind of like Virginia Tech," McLaughlin said. "But when teams stack the box, they force us to find other ways to get him involved. So we split him out side, we do jet sweeps, bubble screens. Just a little bit of everything."
Washington takes particular pride in his developing ability as a receiver as well as a runner.
"I can run a post route, a slant, a corner, but I want to improve my catching," Washington said. "I don't want to be the guy that you have take off the field."
McLaughlin notes that he's effective when he does catch the ball in the space, largely because of his superior athleticism and size.
"He runs a 4.4 40(-yard dash) and plays from 210 to 215 (pounds)," McLaughlin said. "There's not a lot of guys like that around."
But he says that Washington also has quite the head for the game as well.
"He's knowledgeable about the game, he knows what other people are trying to do," McLaughlin said. "And he has a 3.5 GPA. He's a great student at a tough school, that's not easy."
Washington says he plans on committing in March, and if the Hokies are able to pull an upset and beat out his many other suitors, then McLaughlin says they'll be getting more than just a talented running back.
"He's a better kid than he is a football player, and he's a heck of a football player," McLaughlin said.
Comments
Is David Wilson training for triple jump in Blacksburg yet? We ought to get him involved with this recruitment.
How much can they involve him? He is not a student or current player or employee.
Then he'll just be a guy who just so happens to be training in a particular location when they bring the kid around. "Oh, hey, David. Didn't see ya there. By the way, have you met Robert?"
In best Barney voice, "Have you met Ted."
In September, DW4 was planning to finish up his degree and work as a volunteer assistant with the Track team while he's in Blacksburg training. Unless he has changed his mind in the last couple months, he would be a student who is volunteering with the athletic department.
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/va_tech/david-wilson-plans-to-ret...
but can he catch rabbits??
About 50 yrs ago, I caught a rabbit. It would jump out of the same little weed patch two or three times a week as we walked through a field to catch the school bus. One day, I gave my little brother my books and lunch, and snuck up behind that spot. I then dove on it blind, purely on spec, and sho' 'nuff, he was home. I think I had hold of him for maybe 3 or 4 seconds, long enough to get my brand new shirt shredded at the sleeves, both forearms bloodied from his hind leg claws, and a healthy respect for why you don't want to catch a rabbit. And a minor spanking from momma for messing up my new shirt. Luckily, my dad thought it was funny. So, in my experience, other than a good story, only three things can happen when you catch a rabbit, and all of them are bad, unless your dad gives you the pass mine did. Wilson was lucky, he must've worn the poor feller out.
up vote for you just for the profile name and pic! welcome to the family you summm bish!
You mean "you summm fish?"
Thank you for your warm welcome, really glad to be here amongst Hokie friends.
Smart and talented young man. I hope he chooses the good guys.
Tradition at running back, indeed. Someone make sure Kevin Jones and David Wilson are conveniently around at all times during Robert's visit(s).
I am guessing his recruitment will have a lot to do with how Juice and Shai due this year and how injuries, redshirts, etc. work out. Best of luck with whatever your decision is kid.
Are you thinking from a VT standpoint? How hard we go after him? That might be true, but if he's interested in us and has friends on the team that gives us an "in," then I would propose that we pursue him, no matter who else we have. You're never "wasting" a scholarship on a kid of this talent.
From Washington's standpoint, he probably isn't even considering a team's depth chart. A kid of this talent isn't worried about the competition. And every school he will consider will have a loaded depth chart.
Wherever this guy ends up, he's going to be good. Watching his highlights, he has those natural instincts to avoid tackles and the vision of where to go when the play breaks down. Those traits are hard to teach, especially at a high school level, and he already has it.
His highlights remind of Ryan Williams' high school tape, I still look them up on YouTube just to reminisce. I hope to see Robert Washington (RW2?) in orange and maroon but whatever school he chooses, I have a feeling he's going to become a household name in a few years.
I love watching a top level RB's HS film. I remember watching KJ's film back in the day, it was shocking how much better he was than his HS competition. Same here. This kids film just blows you away.
I know recruiting is much more complicated than I will ever know, but doesn't it seem odd that we didn't offer him from the jump? He's pretty obviously talented, 2 hours away, and has connections to the program. It just seems odd to me. Even if we didn't think we had a shot why not offer it and see where it goes? It just seems like we didn't really even "kick the tires" and he had to initiate it.
Giving a highly sought-after prospect an offer without following up with steady communications is barely any better than not offering.
I was thinking more you offer the kid, have a conversation with him and coach and then see where it goes from there. If this was a kid in CA then I get it, but 2 hours from campus seems like there was more here. Obviously we got a vibe that he might not be interested early on and that's probably why we hadn't. I just found that bit of the article interesting if nothing else.
I'll start by saying I know nothing about the recruitment of this player or the plans/thoughts of our coaching staff but we can't necessarily offer every 4 and 5 star recruit out there. There were over 250 4* recruits (from Rivals) last year alone.
I understand your argument of proximity and current player ties to the program but it's not always a good thing to offer recruits just for the sake of offering. Sometimes you carry more weight with your offers when you're very selective.
Again, I'm not saying this was the case or an answer to your question, but it's a possible reason. Without questioning parties from both sides of the story (rarely possible), we'll probably never know why it took us so long to extend this guy an offer. As of right now, I'm happy that we're still in contention to land this guy regardless.
Sounds like we had gotten the message that he wasn't interested, either from the coach (most likely, given his quotes) or a third-party.
Well, I am by no means an expert, but I have been doing this recruiting thing for nearly a decade. I got to say over the years it's gotten more and more complicated, with more options and actions to do. But every year there is still only a finite amount of points that I can spread around, and I will usually spend heavy on the kids I want that I know have interest. Once I get them committed and have some excess points then I might be able to change tactics and bring the house on a recruit that isn't openly interested because I may be able to flip him.
I mean... If you are a good RB recruit all you have to do is realize what we did for undersized JCC last year in getting him carries and yards and you would have to like your chances to do something good here.
With his size and speed? It would be a return of the Evans-Williams-Wilson 1-2-3 punch we had in 2011 in putting him with Shai and Marshawn. With Lawson at QB, the receivers we have, and the OL we're developing, that would be one hell of a potent offense.
Sic em, Mook.
Seriously, Mook is shaping up to be one of our best recruiters.
Seriously, Mook needs to be brought on staff as soon as he retires from an inevitable standout NFL career.
Seriously
Mook is recruiting his former teammate CJ Freeman. Who happens to be a RB.
The kid seems to always be lurking in the recruiting background.
At this rate, all of the "soon" gifs are going to become "Mook" gifs.
So guys like Gaines and Alexander are the bloody seal corpses on the ice that we'd see if this video continued?
A metaphor has boundaries...
His highlights are ridiculous.
I love that every highlight ends with #12 running onto the field. (I'm guessing he's the kicker.)
Mook gets more respect in North Carolina than Bojangles; this kid is EVERYWHERE.
Hopefully he plays football half as well as he recruits.
Mook Reynolds, just gotta have more.
Well this is exciting!!
Get em Mook!
I love the fact this kid reached out to us. I know there is the discussion above about us not having offered him already above but that discussion can live up there. We always talk about wanting kids that want to be at VT and I don't think there is a better early sign than when they come to us. We seem to be off to a good start with his recruitment with the UVA game visit and Mook/Adonis working him.
Impressive! This kid's got excellent speed and cuts. I realize it's a highlight clip, but he looks to be a threat to take it to the house on any carry! I also love the way after he scores a TD that he keeps running all the way back to the back fence or wherever the physical limit of the field is! Very cool!
I dont get the title of the post.... are we suppose to be surprised that he is showing interest in us just because he has 40+ offers from other top tier schools? I get he showed no interest before, or at least that was the thinking was, but this comes off like we are supposed to be surprised that we swayed a prospect's interest who has "a bevy of major offers." I mean, we have done that many times, commit or not.
I find myself having the same feeling I get when I go by the Porche or BMW dealership....I know they're almost unattainable....sounds like we may have a better chance at this kid than I have with a 924 or i8. I'd be good with that.