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With 69 days left until Virginia Tech takes on Georgia Tech, we turn our attention to #69 on roster Mr. Mark Shuman or as he’s known in Mexico, Mr. Seis Nueve. Mark is the younger brother of Ryan Shuman, who was a two year starter here at Virginia Tech back in 2007 and 2008. Despite being a highly touted lineman, Shuman has yet to make any headway on the depth chart and will enter this fall as the backup at left tackle. Judging by this spring Shuman still needs another year to fully grasp the position but he is on the right track to become a starter in 2013. Being able to grab some snaps this fall though could be extremely beneficial though.
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The Scoop
Height: 6’7”
Weight: 322 lbs
Position: Left Tackle
Year: R-Sophomore
High School: Fork Union Military Academy
How Did He Get Here?
Shuman was a four star recruit out of Fork Union and held offers from Notre Dame, California, Stanford, Rutgers, West Virginia, Tennessee, and a few others. However, his family ties to Virginia Tech were just too much to overcome for those teams. Shuman committed to the Hokies on April 23rd 2009.
2011 Season Rewind
Shuman missed the first two games of last season due to injury but he did pick up a couple of snaps against Marshall and 11 more against UVA in the season finale.
2012 Prediction
If there’s one offensive lineman I would like to see exceed expectations this fall it’s Shuman. With Nick Becton being the starter, Shuman isn’t going to receive a lot of reps but he is one injury away from starting his first collegiate game. Plus, he’s already being penciled in as our starter at left tackle in 2013. It’s going to be rough if he only sees a handful of snaps this fall then has to start his first game against Alabama in 2013.
However, as long as Becton stays healthy he will likely see every meaningful snap this year and I’m not sure I would completely trust Shuman if he had to start against Clemson or FSU. He’s just not quite at the level he needs to be from a physical standpoint to matchup with those teams yet. Hopefully, the former four star can begin to see the stars align this fall and have that boost him into a starting job in 2013.
Completely Made Up Fact
Much like the upcoming movie “Ted,” Shuman also made a wish to have his favorite childhood toy come to life. However, with Barbie’s unrealistic proportions, his wish turned into a nightmare as naughty schoolgirl Barbie turned out to be a 7’6” 280 pound monster.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Is nick dew transfering , he not on the roster??
We had a couple academic causalities this year and from my understanding, Dew was one of them. So he’ll be ineligible this fall. I think you’ll see him transfer back closer to home.
Who was the others??
Norman and Dew are the two I know of. I don’t think you’ll see either back this fall.
Who was the others???
I heard Theron Norman was ineligible or was transferring.
Not to be mean, I really did wish Nick Dew made it on the field. He was a 4 star prospect and as for Theron Norman, not to be mean again, but he never touched the field unless it was for special teams. Does anybody know why these two never got on the field for our defense?
He was a good talent in high school and he was developing as a WHIP. I think he could have been a good running mate with Vandyke there in 2013 and 2014. But, now we’ll have to get Dahman McKinnon ready a little faster than we originally planned. The good news is he’s one that should pickup the position quicker than most since it’s not all that dissimilar to what he was asked to do in high school.
As for Norman, he wasn’t as fast as we had hoped. Coach Gray said this in the Hokie Annual about Theron:
“Theron is who he is… He knows what he’s doing, but he’s only going to be so fast, so physical, so strong. But he knows how to get lined up, for the most part.”
That’s a little bit of a backhanded compliment but I think it points out that Norman probably wouldn’t have seen the field much even if he did stay. We want physical safeties, if you’re not physical you tend to fall to the wayside.
I know this is random, but I noticed that Michael Parker on Scout’s recruiting page for him says his 40 time is 4.43, has Scout really lost touch of some of these players? And I noticed it’s not just Scouts, but Rivals posts just about everyone with a 4.5 40 time. I know majority of these times aren’t legit, but I can’t help to wonder what are they using to scout these players over the”Danny Coales” type of players in the world?
My commitment articles are almost a carbon copy of a blogging site called “mgoblog”… it’s a blog, slightly similar to The Key Play that covers Michigan athletics. They have a section in every commitment piece they write called “Fake 40 time” and they give a (blank) out of five analysis of each player’s 40 time. I think that shows you that a lot of these 40 times are rather generic.
Honestly, this is why for me it always comes back to me just trusting our staff with their evaluations. I get to see these kids on film and I might get to watch 1 or 2 of them live during the fall. Other than that I got nothing. Our staff gets to work them out up close and see their strengths and weaknesses first hand. That’s why we’ve been so successful with under the radar kids. They may be a 2 star but if a recruiting service did their due diligence on them, they would be rated much higher.
4 team playoff effective 2014-2015 was just approved today. What does this mean for the Hokies going forward??
I don’t think it hurts us and it might even help us a little bit. It will place an emphasis on winning your conference and winning big games. If we got 12-1 with an early loss to say Alabama then we’ll be in the thick of things at the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how this “Committee approach” goes though. What if we’re 12-1, LSU is 13-0, Alabama is 12-1, Oklahoma is 11-1, and USC is 12-1? Which 4 teams will play each other?
One of those teams is going to get left out and will have every right to complain about it.
It just goes to show you that most of the recruiting sites expecially espn have no clue what their doing. They had Dew a top 70 player coming out of High school, no way he was a Espn 150 caliber player he wasnt even top 5 in the state. I’m glad norman is gone i thought he was a wasted scholie hopefully we use the 2 extra scholies right. We need to pick it up with Green because it seems from interviews that he is clemson bound, we have to get him expecially if we don’t resign Drew Harris.