Highly rated 2015 running back Nyheim Hines of North Carolina's Garner High School is ready to make his college choice, but wherever he heads off to school, it would seem he's not going alone.
He's choosing between a bevy of prominent programs, with N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and West Virginia among the strongest contenders for his services.
But Hines, rated a 4-star recruit by the 247Sports Composite ranking, has a pair of tight bonds that will surely be on his mind when he announces his decision at his school at 3:00 PM today.
The first, and likely strongest, relationship Hines is weighing is the one he has with his sister, Nyah.
"Him and his sister are really close," said Thurman Leach, Hines' head coach at Garner HS. "They're like twins, they think alike, act alike. She looks after him."
Like Nyheim, Nyah has a gift for running and is a track star in her own right, and the two even ran track together. Per 247Sports' Ryan Bartow, she's been offered scholarships from three prominent North Carolina schools (North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest) in addition to the Hokies.
She even accompanied Hines on his official visit to Blacksburg last week, so it's no secret that the two could end up going to school together.
Official visit at Virginia Tech #Hokies pic.twitter.com/UJt1aCI1dY— Nyheim Hines (@TheNyNy2) December 13, 2014
But Hines is also close with another North Carolina running back.
Bryce Love of Wake Forest HS formed a bond with Hines after first meeting him several years ago.
"We met a few years back because we were both running track," Love said.
Since then, the pair's mutual success on the football field have only served to bring them closer together. They've even talked some about committing to the same school as a sort of dynamic package deal.
"We've talked about it with a few schools," Love said in mid-November. "Virginia Tech is one of them, so it's definitely a possibility."
Love does indeed hold offers from both the Hokies and the Wolfpack, two of Hines' likely favorites, so the duo heading to college together is certainly conceivable. But unlike Hines, Love is also taking a hard look at Tennessee and Stanford.
Yet even if he does go elsewhere, Love doesn't doubt that Nyheim's connection with Nyah might win out over their bond as fellow football stars.
"They have such a good relationship," Love said. "They're twins."
But that surely leaves Hokie fans wondering: even if Love doesn't tag along, could the Hines family be Blacksburg bound? Leach thinks it's a strong possibility.
"He knows they're just a traditionally fine football school," Leach said. "Coach Beamer and his staff have a tremendous track record. They've had some rough times recently, but he appreciates that tradition."
Leach also notes that Hines has enjoyed spending his time with Charley Wiles, Tech's designed recruiter for the North Carolina area, and is attracted to VT's strong academics.
"He's got a 3.9 GPA, he's a polished guy," Leach said. "He just wants to be the best student-athlete he can be."
While Hines could certainly benefit from Tech's robust classroom instruction, he could also contribute plenty of versatility to the Hokies on the field in the balance.
"He makes a big impact all over the field," Leach said. "We used him at tailback, in the slot, in the kick return. He even played cornerback and safety. He was our best player, and we had to get him on the field."
Leach also raves about Hines' personality off the field, even noting that his disposition might make it hard for him to break the bad news to the programs he ends up turning down this afternoon.
"He's such a nice young man, he just has a hard timing telling anyone 'no,' but he's going to have to," Leach said.
In a just a few hours, that's exactly what he'll be doing.
Comments
Smart, talented, family-oriented, and an overall good kid? Yep, definitely want him to be a Hokie. Let's hope he picks the good guys, but I think he'll do well wherever he ends up.
The Hines' seem like really good kids. VT is all about family, so it would make for a great fit. I hope they both do well wherever they decide to go.
We need great Hokies, Hines family seems to fit the bill. We can never have enough great running backs!
Chances to lead football and track to ACC Championships? Sounds win-win to me, lets do this!
He is deciding at 12:30 today, not 3:00. Check it out on hokiehaven.com
I'm definitely over analyzing this and I'm not up to date with his recruiting (so there's no validity to this) but by looking at this picture alone, I would bet that he won't pick VT.
If I were a recruit and created a picture like this for my announcement, I would be hiding my choice in the middle so it wasn't obvious which school I am choosing. Therefore, I'm not a fan with VT being in the top left corner. I hope I'm wrong.
Yes, I'm over analyzing this but hey it's recruiting, tell me when recruiting is not over analyzing everything. I also pick my horse solely on which one has to best name.
But.... maybe VT was placed in the top left corner because he is subconsciously leaning towards the good guys and that is the first one he placed on the pic. Man, I am shaking in my boots waiting for this. If its moved back to 3 when Im watching during lunchtime, im gonna have to be put in a straightjacket! Like every skilled position player in this years class, he's got a brilliant upside, but we'll never know how he will fare in college if he doesnt have as dominant an OL as he did in this film.
You aren't alone in your theory. I thought the exact same thing...
i sure hope he picks VT.
From 247 Sports:
I don't agree with what they are saying, I am just sharing what they said. I sense a VT selection. He is tight with his sister and she is a track star that is being recruited heavily by NC State and VT (she visited VT with him). When he announces, the selected school likely gets a great track runner as well.
Our women's track program is top notch. I just checked the ACC 2014 Indoor and Outdoor Women's Track Championships results:
Indoor: VT #5, NC State #7
Outdoor: NC State #5, VT #6
Its gonna be close folks....
I think it would be a major surprise if he picked Tech. NC State did a good job of recruiting him throughout the entire process.
I just wish the reverse would be true about top end recruits in Virginia when bigger programs than us are after them as well.
They are from Garner, which is basically Raleigh. Maybe they want to get away, but I really can't imagine they pick us.
i just wish they had thrown all of those grey chick-fil-a kick off jerseys away.
I disagree. I kinda like them. But everyone has a favorite.
i think we could look awesome in gray, just not a fan of those in particular. looked kinda tacky/not well made to me. not nike's best effort.
I'd imagine they take them to the equipment room, show them all the gear and ask them to pick out the jersey they want to wear. I'm pretty sure we've seen recruits in the black Pro Combat uniforms before, though I can't say I've ever seen someone in the white ones.
They seem to end up in Orange a lot.
but we should eliminate the color from our wardrobe because clearly nobody likes it /sarcasm
I only watched part of the video, but from what I saw he has speed and vision, and he's slippery. Also he has a damn good OL in front of him. Not once did I see anyone get a good shot at him, and he never ran over anyone. Of course, for the most part, that could describe David Wilson too (except he did run over some people). Sounds like a really good kid, hope he picks the Hokies. If not, I'm sure he will succeed wherever he goes, best of luck.
If we get him, we suddenly would be incredibly deep with high talented RBs, and if we get Lawson, we would be deep at RB and QB, to go along with the depth we already have at TE, and seeing what Searels is doing with OL recruiting, we are actually starting to get some talented depth there, too. We pick up a couple good WRs in this class, and suddenly the future of our offense looks intriguing, to say the least.
We need to be extremely deep at RB and TE with all the injuries we have had, hopefully we get him...
So we're close to fielding a team with 11 RBs OR 11 DB's right? RIGHT?
Sounds like the San Diego Padres. They now have 11 major league OFs.
I'm glad this is getting legs. I thought about making a Padres joke, but I didn't think it had a prayer of working
You mean like the Padres team?
Always step out, all they can do is ridicule you. :-)
And Will Middlebrooks and his significant other.....Jenny Dell.
He wants an education as well. I hope Tech's academics will push it over the top.
Is NCSU a not-good school?
I think Tech is higher ranked than NC State.
NC State has pretty good academics (maybe not as strong an engineering school as VT but likely better in other fields). It always depends on ones major (or planned major) when choosing schools' academics.
Yeah, it's not WVU or LSU. When I see resume's from NCSU grads, I don't have a negative connotation.
IIRC, NCSU has a decent, not great engineering department and a pretty good meteorology program.
Here here they're very similar schools, trust me I've looked into their grad program
I think they're very similarly rated to VT in terms of science and engineering
up until Louisville joined, FSU and NCSU jockeyed for bottom of the conference as far as academic rankings are concerned. Of course, ACC insisted on top 100 rankings so even they weren't awful, but they ditched that requirement because they really wanted Louisville this last time around.
I think our crowded but injured backfield might scare him away as well. but we all know you can never have enough RB's in the stable.
McClease could be a diamond in the rough as well.
FTFY
It would be a major surprise to all involved if he came here. IMHO. I would strongly caution against anyone getting their hopes up...
When I was in high school, Garner was the football program to beat in our conference. We lost to just about everybody but it was a huge deal locally if Garner lost.
I really hope we get him, his sister, and his friend.
Why are we not even on the radar as far as crystal balls go on 247?
The 80's hair is blocking the transmission.
I wonder how long David Bowie had to practice that...
Picked it up in no time flat.
check the dates of those CBs then look at the schools he is "warm" on/ made OVs to recently. I would say, many expected UNC from the start for similar reasons to them being highly touted in the preseason rankings this year. Also, if he is high on family, he could very well be a homer. (Please join us, Nyheim! We always need more stars on out RB depth chart.)
ha! Nice
anyone know where the announcement is being made...(web link)
http://www.highschoolot.com/content/video/14294373/#/vid14294373
bandwidth issues at the high school. Feed is messed up. Not gonna see it.
Wolfpack
The video skipped around and i think he said NC State
Correct
nc state...
Tech was a longshot here, not too surprised. He would have been an excellent addition to this class.
Oh, a good player decided to play for a school in his own state when bigger schools were after him?
Huh... I thought this wasn't supposed to happen in the world of modern day recruiting....
ha! My thoughts exactly. Double standard right?
What bigger schools were after him? Not just the ones that 247 lists as interests, but the ones that were really after him. And don't underestimate Doeren.
Virginia Tech is a bigger football school than NC State
Yes, but...: It's not the least bit remarkable that he would pick the in-state school (and NC State over UNC). It's not like VT's or UNC's programs are going to give him that much of an edge at going to the pros if that's his goal. It's not like we are Nat'l champ contenders by any objective measure. We aren't a perceived elite team that can mesmerize him with our history and our recent success.
We missed our chance to become an out-of-state recruiting powerhouse in the years around and just after MV7 by maintaining all our focus in-state. We had the "it" fact then, and potentially could have sold quality out-of-starters on the idea of coming here and doing the unthinkable . Until we can rise to the top and start competing at that level again, it's always going to be a much harder sell to convince recruits to go against their in-state inclinations.
Yep, although we have recruited the state of Florida well over the years.
To be more accurate, we've recruited one or two high schools well. Big difference
True, but we aren't stealing any 5 stars (or even 4 stars that I recall) from Fla. There are more high-quality recruits playing high-quality opposition in Fla than there are quality D1 football programs. A lot easier to sneak in there when they have so many subjectively less-desired players with objectively better refined qualities than most other states.
Agreed. Have a leg. I do believe that Ford was a 4 star and if we land Lawson he is a 4 star as well. Baby steps, I suppose.
I. Ford was a 3 star IIRC. Lawson would be a terrific get, and another step in the right direction. I think the inroads we've made in Fl will pay more and more dividends if we keep our recruiting presence up down there.
His ratings were all over. 247 had him a mid 4 star. ESPN had him as low 4 star. Rivals had him as a high 3 star. Scout had him as a 3 star (they don't have granulation).
Was Jayron Hosley a 4 star?
Good call. Yeah, Rivals had him as a 4 star.
Good for him and his sister. I think NC State runs a good clean program. Beats the hell out of their "public ivy" in-state rivals.
I was all set with a great celebration gif, but instead will just wish him the best of luck. Sorry he won't be coming to play for us, but let's not pretend that we aren't absolutely stacked with high quality depth at this point. (Assuming we can get and stay healthy.)
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Nothing new. Hope no one was counting on him as a Hokie. NC State recruited him hard throughout the entire process.
See below thread. We had a 7 bride moment this week. Count em!!!
http://www.thekeyplay.com/virginia-tech-football-recruiting/2014/12/8311/virginia-tech-announces-7-mid-year-football-signees
Dude!
I was referring to the press conference announcements that we all anxiously await. Mook we already knew, etc. I am talking about the ones that are up in the air and there is a hat to be chosen and our hat is up there but never picked up to wear. Maybe I need to stop watching these things lol. Every time I watch that VT hat stays on the table.
OK, leg for you .... opportunity provided, and opportunity taken (to laugh it up a bit).
Happy Holidays!
oh well, there are still a few guys out there. We atleast got DeShawn Mclease as a recruit, plus DJ Reid and Travon McMillan as R-Freshmen for next year. Hopefully, we get some injured RBs back. Not looking too bad for next year for RBs.
Been hearing that with the nature of the recovery timeframe of their injuries its likely we'll see one or both of Shai and Marshawn redshirt next year.
I'd be shocked if they both didn't redshirt.
Agreed, especially with McKenzie being a second injury stemming from non-contact
It's a distinct possibility. Hopefully JC can keep chuggin along and Trey can get healthy and stay that way. Toss in one of the young guys for a changeup and to keep the older guys fresh, and we should be OK. Sure would be nice to have Marshawn or Shai though.
Even with his play at the end of the year, if we're relying on JC to be the feature back next year, we will have the same offensive struggles next year as we had this past year. He's a good change up kind of guy that comes in while you're giving your feature guy a quick breather, but I just don't see him holding up over the course of the year as the main back for us.
The running game wasn't the problem by the end of the year. I agree that he won't hold up, but when have we ever had RBs who actually do hold up throughout the course of the season? This offense didn't struggle because of the run game, it was the terrible pass blocking, bad playcalling, and average QB play. By the end of the year, you could almost bank on Coleman giving you about 80 yards a game.
Coleman struggles when he has to break tackles. If you get him the ball in space, he'll make plays. The problem is, with the nature of our OL, carries by our RBs have resulted in the need to break a tackle at or behind the LOS in a depressingly high number of plays. He played his nuts off against UVa in no small part because Teller started playing like a man possessed, and because UVa's DL turtled like Sony after a cyberthreat.
Yep, both should redshirt. Hines would've been huge for us. Depth is a bigger deal than people realize when two of those guys associated with our "depth" are rehabbing serious knee injuries, one of which is rehabbing said knee for the second time.
Those 3 bring some speed to the table, plus Reid has some size.
Yeah, he would've been nice, but there are much bigger needs in this class.
I think the need-based argument is more supportable in March or April. The biggest needs of this class were DE and OL. Tech's done okay at OL with 2 signed and 2 more committed. Ideally one of the tackles could play in the fall, but I think every OL in this class thus far needs gentrification and coaching. Finding a tackle that can play on day one is tough because it's a limited resource. The poor OL depth is a failing of Newsome \ Frank Beamer for not recruiting more true OL in 2011, '12 and '13.
Aside from Hill, Tech's whiffed at DE. They really needed two DEs that could come in and push for playing time. That didn't happen even though there were a plethora of talented ends in-state and Dalton in Carolina. Either the coaches will sign the prospects down on their board (Gaines, Shelton Johnson, etc...) or move tweeners\mult-position players like Xavier Burke and Tremaine Edmunds to DE. It's not an ideal situation.
Yes, this class had needs, but it's the end of December it seems unlikely they will all be addressed. Therefore, a 4-star offensive skill player becomes a take, because he can probably affect results on the field sooner than late-in-the-cycle projects at OL and DE. I think Tech signaled pretty loud they wanted him by hosting him on an official and offering his sister a track scholarship.
Also, it seems unlikely we will take two RB in this class (I don't think Coleman Fox is an every down TB), and before all the injuries at RB that was the right play. Since then, I think it's become a need in itself.
Very good player. Not a high need position with Reid, McMillian, McClease coming in behind Coleman and Edmunds if McKenzie and Williams need a redshirt year to recover.
What about that Coleman Fox kid? Any real chance he gets in at RB?
Trey, JC, Joel Caleb, Reid, McMillian, then Wright, and Rogers at FB we can Redshirt Shai, Williams, Fox, and McCleaseI'd also like some plays with Chris Durkin at FB, HB, or RB at 6'4 240 he'd be a beast and with Brewer, Motley, and Ford at qb and then lawson either redshirting or starting if he commits it seems Motley and Durkin can play elsewhere, we have a lot of talent, just need to get it all organized and utilize it right! This is just the running game, the WR's and TE's in the passing game is another issue to organize and get straight altogether. Lots of talent coming back and coming in this year. These next coming years will probably be better than the Vick years, or at worst just as good!
Williams and McKenzie are not going to be redshirted. I understand your logic, but after seeing how effective they can be, there's no way we're sitting them. We almost made that mistake with Tyrod.
tyrod wasn't coming off a blown up knee (multiple, in shai's case).
They might both be getting medical redshirts.
My understanding is that they both played too much to qualify. Shai only missed the cutoff by one game, but Marshawn played over half the season. Jerome Wright also isn't eligible for one since the game he played in was the second half of the season.
Chris Durkin plays James Conner. I like it.
And he's a wolfpacker.
http://www.backingthepack.com/nc-state-football-recruiting/2014/12/19/74...
Edit: Oops, thought I was breaking the news.