This past weekend showcased the good and evil of following the recruitment of these high school athletes. Tech hosted their second summer camp on Saturday and had numerous prospects on hand to check out the campus or participate in the camp. That was the good news, the bad news came when the Hokies lost three of their recruits that decided to commit to other schools.
UNC did the most damage landing both Landon Turner and Marquise Williams. UVA was also able to sneak in and grab quarterback David Watford as well. While the two quarterbacks were expected to commit elsewhere, most Tech fans held out hope that Landon Turner would spurn the recent rumors and pick Virginia Tech. However, due to family issues, he chose the school that he felt was right for him. All you can do is wish the kid luck and turn to the next recruit on the board.
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With just under seven months left until Signing day, it’s time to recharge the batteries and take a look at who’s left on the VT Target board. Below we will examine each position and see who can fill the final seven or so spots left in this 2011 recruiting class. First up is the Quarterbacks.
As you can tell, the Hokies have missed on just about every other target on their board this year. A lot of that can be attributed to the lack of playing time the coaches can sell for this year. Still, the coaches are determined to find at least one quarterback in this class and it appears they have found their man in Lafante Thourogood out of Ocean Lakes.
Thourogood was down to WVU, UVA, and VT a few weeks ago but with UVA picking up a commitment from Watford on Saturday, that will likely force Thourogood away from UVA. LT is likely to make a decision by the end of the month and if he does I would expect him to choose Virginia Tech.
With so much youth at running back this fall, I wouldn’t expect Tech to recruit a tailback this year. The Hokies did offer Michael Holmes at one point but it appears that the interest from both sides has faded, as Holmes is likely to pick between UVA and JMU.
Clifton Richardson is considered a soft commit to UVA but with his academic situation, he will likely attend a full prep year at either Hargrave Military Academy or Fork Union next year. That means he can be re-recruited by any team that offered him. Odds are, Richardson will likely end up somewhere other than UVA.
With three rising juniors at wide receiver, it may be time for Tech to find a potential wide receiver for the future when those three players graduate. The Hokies found a huge diamond in the rough last year in E.L. Smiling out of Brooke Point high school. However, they really need to at least find one this year
Quintae Funderburke is the only in-state wide receiver that has offers from both Virginia Tech and Virginia. However, according to a few sources he appears likely to head out of state and potentially join his former teammate, Phillip Simms, at Alabama. The Hokies may be able to grab a visit from him this fall but even that may be stretching it.
Darius Jennings is another possibility but the wide receiver out of Maryland has a laundry list of offers to choose from. Jennings will visit Blacksburg in a couple weeks and after that, we’ll know exactly how much interest he has in Virginia Tech.
One player not listed here as he's being recruited as a prep prospect is Alonzo Russell. Russell was teammates with Ricardo Young last year but had to prep at Milford Academy due to his grades. The Hokies have offered and it appears that he is closing in on a decision. Russell will enroll at whichever school he chooses in January of 2012.
With Chris Hall and Christian Reeves on board, the Hokies may select not to take another tight end this year depending on how the numbers workout. As you can tell by the chart, Drew Owens is the only tight end left uncommitted that holds a VT offer. Last month, the Ardry Kell prospect announced his top five and since that list didn’t include VT, I’m guessing the Hokies have likely moved on.
This is where everything starts getting interesting. Tech needs to find at least two offensive linemen in this class but thanks to Butch Davis, the Hokies top two prospects are both headed to Chapel Hill. So, where do the Hokies go from here? Well I wouldn’t be shocked if Jake Goins earns a regular scholarship offer instead of the greyshirt offer he was given a few months ago. If that happens, I would expect Goins to commit almost on the spot. He has been keeping his options open because of that offer but if VT clears him for fall enrollment, I doubt he’ll stay uncommitted for very long.
Mack Crowder will become an almost must get prospect now for Virginia Tech. Crowder is the 13th best offensive center in the nation but I believe the Hokies are recruiting him as just an interior lineman. Crowder holds over 15 scholarship offers so hopefully the Hokies can get him back on campus one more time before he decides to commit.
The nations number one offensive tackle, Cyrus Kouandjio, was in Blacksburg on Saturday. The good news is that Tech really impressed the Maryland native but the Hokies still has a ways to go to beat out Florida or Alabama for the kid. Kouandjio isn’t going to announce anything until after his senior season so Tech may be able to grab an official visit from him later on this season. If that’s the case, then hell the Hokies will at least have a punchers chance in this one.
If Tech fails to land two that are mentioned above, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them offer either Sedale Young out of Roanoke, Chaz Lowry out of Virginia Beach, or even Josh Mann who is Lowry’s teammate at Ocean Lakes.
With Matt Roth and Corey Marshall on board, I have to believe that the coaches are done recruiting defensive ends for this year. Chickillo still has VT in his top 12 but odds are he’ll never visit and Frost has eliminated VT and is down to a top five.
With Harley on board, the coaches have focused more on some 2012 DT’s than finding another one in this class. As you can tell by the chart above, Harley will be our only DT in this class.
Curtis Grant is “numero uno” on Tech’s board this year and honestly, this class will likely be a failure if the coaches miss out on him. Grant is by far the best linebacker to come out of this state since Vince Hall and Xavier Adibi a few years ago and even then, he’s still probably a better overall prospect at this stage of his career. Grant is still wide open but when it comes down to official visits; you just have to like VT’s chances.
Travis Hughes was on campus this past weekend and seemed to enjoy the visit immensely. The Hokies needed to roll out the red carpet to contend with UNC and it appears that Tech did that. Hughes spent most of the day with Coach Bud Foster and seemed wowed by his knowledge of the game and his resume as a defensive coordinator. Right now, it’s definitely another VT vs. UNC recruiting battle. Let’s hope VT can actually win one of these this year.
Stephone Anthony once listed VT as his leader but since then, the Hokies have faded a bit. Tech still resides in his top three but they’re behind Florida and Clemson. However, Anthony still wants to visit Virginia Tech again and spend some time with the coaches and his former teammate Barquell Rivers. So, at this point, the Hokies still at least have a chance.
Michael Cole flew under the radar for a while before exploding onto the scene during his junior year. He led Cave Spring to the state semi-finals before falling to Northside High School. Cole holds three scholarship offers from UVA, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. It appears that Cole will announce his decision sometime before the end of July as well. The Hokies sit in a good position as Cole will likely visit VT a week before committing and in this business, that’s always a good sign.
With Turner now off the board, Nicholson moves up alongside Hughes as being potentially the third most important recruit left in this class. Nicholson has been a UNC lean the entire time and it would be nice to give UNC a bit of their own medicine by stealing a recruit from them. The four star cornerback is supposed to visit Blacksburg again this summer and when that happens, expect VT to throw everything they can at the kid. If the Hokies can some how say Demetrius back over to the light side that certainly would heal a lot of wounds this year.
The second most important recruit in this class is Dominique Terrell. Terrell is a dynamic playmaker that could play either slot receiver or cornerback in college. The Hokies are recruiting him as a corner while West Virginia and a few other schools are trying to sway him by promising him he’ll start out at wide receiver. Right now, it appears that WVU is leading by a small margin but expect Terrell to decide sometime during the fall, which gives VT plenty of time to make up some ground on the Mountaineers.
If either of those two falls through, the coaches have offered both James Farrow and Kyshoen Jarrett recently. Farrow was a Minnesota commit before decommiting a few months ago and Jarrett was a film offer, meaning we offered him after seeing his junior film. Jarrett loves VT and wants to visit sometime this summer now that he has an offer in hand and Farrow seems interested as well.
The Virginia Tech coaching staff was only going to take one safety in this 2011 class and with Vandyke being the Hokies first commitment of this class that ended things early. UVA found a talented safety in Kameron Mack although he’ll probably move up to linebacker in the future. Swann will likely stay in-state and commit to UGA eventually.
While this class hasn’t quite panned out for the Hokies, Tech still has plenty of opportunities to make this one of the best classes they’ve ever signed.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
What a lousy weekend for VT.
Butch Davis and company runs circles aroung the Beamer gang in the critical area of recruiting.
Every year I hope that Beamer can finally break through and have a top 10 recruiting class and every year I get dissapointed.
Frank Beamer has a miserable record against top 10 teams and unbelievably poor record against top 5 teams because of his inability to recruit enough elite talent.
This past weekend he also lost Nubian Peake largely because he couldn’t sell Tahrick Peake on the idea of attending one of Virginia’s fine prep schools.
What’s the problem?.
Can Frank Beamer get VT to the next level or is it going to require a younger more charasmatic coach in the future?.
Losing Turner and Peake means that the staff needs to work extra hard at getting Crowder and Terrell or another smaller quick reciever such as Jennings.
Given past experience, I expect another mediocre recruiting year and am just hoping that Logan Thomas has the intangibles to be superb quarterback ; Otherwise, VT is in for a significant competitive decline.
Whoa! Ease up their cowboy. I think you and some other Hokie fans have succumb to what is commonly known as “star gazing.” You have to remember that these are very subjective rankings that come from talent evaluators that probably haven’t actually coached a game of football in their lives. Top 10 classes and star rankings aren’t everything. Hell Boise State ranks in the bottom 30 every year and they’ll be ahead of us to start of the 2010 season.
This weekend did hurt a little bit but sometimes their are things in recruiting you just can’t overcome. In Landon Turner’s case he wanted to play somewhere both of his parents could see him play. After his UNC visit he found that his dad (who lives in South Carolina) could make the trip up for his games. Now, we could have countered that if we were able to have both him and his dad visit but we never got the opportunity. He called a press conference about a month before anybody was expecting him to commit. It happens. These are 17 and 18 year old kids.
We do have a miserable record against top 10 teams however, there is a good reason for that. I don’t believe we should lose an in-state prospect to say Florida but its really hard to go into say GA and pull a player away from Georgia. Location matters to about 95% of the kids out there. You also have to remember that we got Tyrod over Florida, we got Logan Thomas over Florida State, and we beat out a couple Florida schools for Jayron Hosely.
I think this year really hasn’t gone to plan but just like in 2002 and in 2006, the coaches will make adjustments at the end of the year to counter what UNC and UVA are doing. In 2002, we lost a TON of big name recruits to UVA, in 2003, we owned the state of Virginia and lost I think only two three star kids to UVA. I have a feeling that the coaches will probably tinker with some things next year and knowing how savvy coach Beamer is, I have a feeling 2012 will be another great class for us.
The last thing you need to worry about is our recruiting. Honestly, none of us know how good any of these kids are until they get on campus. A good example of that is E.L. Smiling, the 2 star wide receiver out of last years class. So far, he’s had by far the best reviews of anybody in the 2010 class. Where as Mark Shuman, a 4 star lineman, hasn’t quite been as impressive as some thought he would.
So ease up on following recruiting so closely and hanging on to where some of these kids go. Trust me, it’s not for the faint-of-heart.