A closer look at the recruits Virginia Tech got Saturday
It seems like it was a banner recruiting day for Virginia Tech on Saturday, despite the spring game being rained out.
The Hokies got six commitments, five for 2013 and one for 2014. The most commits Tech had gotten on a single day — at least going back in the nine years on Rivals’ database — was four on Jan. 31, 2005.
But it’s not just the numbers that have to have to the coaches pleased. It’s the positions. Bucky Hodges was the quarterback they had targeted from the get-go, a possible successor to Logan Thomas (and at 6-5, built in the same mold). They needed offensive linemen and grabbed two from in-state. In fact, all six of the recruits were from in-state, three from the 757 area, where Virginia and Mike London have made inroads in recent years.
Here’s a closer look at each of the six players who committed Saturday:
Bucky Hodges
* Position: QB
* Ht/Wt: 6-5, 225
* HS/Hometown: Salem/Virginia Beach
* Other offers: JMU, UConn, East Carolina, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Wake Forest, West Virginia
* Recruited by: Curt Newsome/Bryan Stinespring
* Stars: Rivals — 4; 247 — 4
* Ranks: Rivals — 13 QB, 201 nationally; 247 — 2 dual QB, 3 state, 50 nationally; VaPreps — 5 state; Roanoke Times — 1 state
* Stats: Completed 64 percent of his passes for 2,142 yards and 26 touchdowns. Ran for 434 yards, 9 touchdowns. Beach District Offensive Player of the Year.
* The skinny: The Hokies have spread out their quarterback recruiting over the year, seamlessly transitioning from four-year starter Tyrod Taylor to Logan Thomas, who if he stays for his final two seasons, will finish as a three-year starter. In an ideal world for the Hokies, Hodges could redshirt in 2013 and take the reins in 2014 with his entire career ahead of him. That’s a long ways off, though.
Charles Clark
* Position: DB
* Ht/Wt: 5-11, 180
* HS/Hometown: King’s Fork/Suffolk
* Other offers: Virginia
* Recruited by: Stinespring
* Stars: Rivals — 3; 247 — 4
* Ranks: Rivals — NR; 247 — 21 cornerback, 15 state; VaPreps — 21 state; Roanoke Times — 13 state
* Stats: Finished with 58 tackles and five fumble recoveries to earn Southeastern District Defensive Player of the Year honors. Also a running back, ran for team-best 788 yards and 6 touchdowns. Second-team all-district pick at kick returner.
* The skinny: Low on bodies in the defensive backfield, Tech appears to be loading up at this position for 2013. The Hokies already had commitments from three players expected to be defensive backs. Clark makes that four, with five-star cornerback Kendall Fuller still on Tech’s wish list (a decision from him doesn’t sound like it will come any time soon).
Braxton Pfaff
* Position: OL
* Ht/Wt: 6-5, 290
* HS/Hometown: Liberty Christian Academy/Lynchburg
* Other offers: Virginia, West Virginia, Liberty
* Recruited by: Cornell Brown
* Stars: Rivals — NR; 247 — 3
* Ranks: Rivals — NR; 247 — 48 offensive guard, 32 state; VaPreps — NR; Roanoke Times — NR
* Stats: A first-team All-VIC and first-team All-VIS Division I selection as a junior for state champion LCA.
* The skinny: Pfaff had shown plenty of interest in Tech recently, attending several spring practices. The Hokies would like to grab at least four offensive linemen in this class, given the relative low numbers of linemen they’ve had in the last few classes. Pfaff is one who doesn’t look like he’ll have to add too much size at the next level.
Parker Osterloh
* Position: OL
* Ht/Wt: 6-7, 268
* HS/Hometown: Warhill/Williamsburg
* Other offers: Virginia, James Madison
* Recruited by: NA
* Stars: Rivals — 3; 247 — 3
* Ranks: Rivals — NR; 247 — 60 offensive tackle, 25 state; VaPreps — 30; Roanoke Times — NR
* Stats: A tight end/defensive end, he caught seven passes for 265 yards and a touchdown last year. Helped Warhill to winning record, playoff appearance and playoff victory for first time in program history.
* The skinny: He might be a tight end in high school, but many of the highlights on his tape are of his blocking. At 6-7, he has a huge frame to work with. You’d imagine Tech would be able to add whatever bulk it wants to get him big enough to play on the offensive line in college.
Andrew Motu’apuaka
* Position: LB
* Ht/Wt: 6-0, 210
* HS/Hometown: Salem/Virginia Beach
* Other offers: Stanford, Utah, Old Dominion, James Madison
* Recruited by: Bryan Stinespring
* Stars: Rivals — NR; 247 — 3
* Ranks: Rivals — NR; 247 — 85 OLB, 34 state; VaPreps — NR; Roanoke Times — NR
* Stats: Finished with 97 tackles and three interceptions for SunDevils defense that shut out four opponents. Leading vote-getter at linebacker in Beach District.
* The skinny: Hodges’ teammate, Motu’apuaka, who is listed as 5-11, 195 by 247 Sports, might be a whip linebacker down the line.
Vincent Mihota (2014)
* Position: DE
* Ht/Wt: 6-4, 240
* HS/Hometown: Massaponax/Fredericksburg
* Other offers: First offer
* Recruited by: Bud Foster
* Stars: NA
* Ranks: NA
* Stats: Earned all-district and all-region honors as a two-way starter last year.
* The skinny: Vincent, or Vinny, is the younger brother of two-year Virginia starting center Anthony Mihota, who wrapped up his college career last season. The commitments keep getting younger and younger. Mihota will be a junior next season.
Here’s an updated recruiting list for the Hokies in 2013:
- Charles Clark, DB, 5-11, 180, Suffolk (King’s Fork)
- Holland Fisher, DB, 6-2, 205, Midlothian (Manchester)
- Bucky Hodges, QB, 6-5, 225, Virginia Beach (Salem)
- Cequan Jefferson, ATH, 5-11, 167, Richmond (Henrico)
- Andrew Motu’apuaka, LB, 6-0, 210, Virginia Beach (Salem)
- Parker Osterloh, OL, 6-7, 268, Williamsburg (Warhill)
- Braxton Pfaff, OL, 6-5, 290, Lynchburg (Liberty Christian)
- David Prince, ATH, 6-0, 175, Roanoke (Patrick Henry)
- Anthony Shegog, DB, 6-2, 195, Stafford (North Stafford)
April 22, 2012 - 12:41 PM
I particularly like the fact that Hodges turned down Ohio State and that Motu’apuaka turned down Stanford to stay with us. Many of us (VT people) set our eyes on outrucruiting Mike London. I think that gives UVA too much credit. I want to see us beat out really Big Time programs and I put OSU and Stanford in that category. When teams like that offer an out of area kid it really marks that player’s talent to me. It also shows that those who have no faith in the moves Frank Beamer made the last couple years were wrong about the coaching changes. Hodges is a big time recruit and who got him? Newsome and Stinespring. WAY TO GO!!!!
In all the recent discussions about getting rid of Stinespring (and more recently Newsome), there has always been comments about their recruiting ability. With Beamer’s commitment to loyalty, I don’t either of these guys going anywhere. Especially when they continue to bring the good recruits.
All of the recruits are from Virginia so far this year.
Tech has expanded their recruiting base lately, and that is a good move by the staff, but if the best players are in the state then take them.
Take the best players where you can get them.
Go Hokies !!!
Whoa there, Z, 69- let’s not get too lightheaded here. No question Hodges is a big get. Pfaff and Osterloh are going to present great opportunities for both Newsome and Stiney to develop them into good lineman. The biggest knock against these 2 coaches is their perceived inability to develop talent, implement effective blocking schemes, bring some imagination to Tech’s ancient and too predictable play calling (Stiney) and continued insistence on recruiting tight ends to become O Linemen.
The verbal commitments from these kids don’t change any of that yet, even if they actually sign letters of intent. We all hope they work out, but it’s a little early to absolve Curt and Stiney of their shortcomings until we see us overcome these issues and translate these to successes on the field.
Go Hokies!!
While Hodges is certainly a really good recruit – Rivals 4 star, pay attention to those, folks – it’s not exactly like OhState and VT were battling neck and neck.
When you say we’ve got two recruits who turned down OhState and Stanford to play with the Hokies, you also need to realize the other schools they turned down were a whole lot of JMU, UConn, East Carolina, Old Dominion type schools, too. Not exactly a Murderer’s Row of the elite in college football history. All the other names almost make you question if the two recruits were being pursued by those two programs, or if they were pursuing those two programs just to say to VT – ‘Hey, don’t take us for granted!…’
Whoa there, Techerman. What is wrong with giving credit where credit is due? They said nothing about their coaching fallacies, so why so eager to try to turn a positive into a negative??
Seriously, if O’Cain is calling the plays, and Stiney can’t design or implement anything remotely effective on offense, then why is Stiney still OC? I’m with Techerman and about 2 million other Virginians on this. Stiney has proven beyond doubt that he is not top 25 material as an OC, and yet CFB continues to allow him to collect wages similar to Foster. Does that make any sense? Sidenote: whomever was responsible for the boneheaded decision making against Michigan should be ashamed of themselves. No excuses
Love your optimism abdnva! Geez! What would it take to make you happy?
hd5000, that person responsible for the ‘boneheaded decision making’ would be the $2.4 mil man – Frank Beamer. That is, unless his devout lemmings want to pretend he wanders the sidelines aimlessly during games, with no cognition of what’s happening on the field and no control over his program. Isn’t he supposed to be the special teams coach? A heck of a way to earn $2.4 mil a year, I’d say.
How does the punting look for this fall? How does the place kicking look for this fall? Why does VT, of all programs, have SUCH a problem finding decent kickers & punters? Weren’t we supposed to have invented special teams focus? What happened to that?
Oh yeah, we’re waiting on Cody Journell’s charges to be dropped to misdemeanors so we can reinstate him as though he’s an innocent. That’s always a Plan A to consider…
Verbal commitments…we’ll see if these guys still take their official visits this fall.
Andy, did you survey the parking lot to get a guess on the anticipated attendance before the rain cancelled things?
Did not survey the lot. And did not make a guess on the attendance. People were pretty scattered because of the weather.
I agree with Zman (#1). I guess Mr. Motu’apuaka wants to get a REAL degree from a serious Univesity and not go to some football factory like Stanford
Jerry made the comment that VT is a top 15 job in college football. I realize that this a vt bias blog, but he is way off base with this…
George,
You’re correct- they said nothing about these coaches fallacies. That’s the problem. Z and 69 are saying that Newsome and Stiney have proved they can get good recruits now which validates Beamer’s coaching changes and that neither of them are going anywhere. A little shortsighted in light of these 2 coaches glaring shortcomings, don’t you think?
abdnva,
There are those that believe this staff of coaches is all that is required to win a National Title. There are also those that believe it was a smashingly good idea to build a room to house the Sears Trophy before we actually win it. Lastly, there are still those that believe the only human on earth that can win a big game is Frank from Fancy Gap.
We are coming up on the 10 year anniversary of Virginia Tech’s lone top 5 win, 2003 at home vs. Miami. But facts are sometimes difficult for those who believe that the status quo is best for us because the ‘they remember how bad it was before frank came here’ people. At least with Jimmy Sharp, you knew you were going to suck without fear of some shallow promise of greatness like what Hokie fans currently receive from this program.
Stinespring and Curt Newsome are cemented on the Tech payroll as if a major blackmail plot was against Frank Beamer, complete with pictures.
Isnt it time people give Frank Beamer the credit he deserves? In his 26th season at Tech he deserves to be appreciated for his tenure, his leadership and bringing Virginia Tech to relevancy in major college football. It is also a time to recognize the not so dirty little secret that most know by now, and some care not to admit–WE are NOT BEAMERBALL ANYMORE…WE ARE 1-27 VS TOP 5 TEAMS, and we WILL NEVER RECRUIT, RETAIN AND WIN A NATIONAL TITLE LIKE ALABAMA, USC, AUBURN, OHIO STATE.
Why not? Because we arent them. We are a solid program that challenges for the conference title every year, winning alot of them, but we cant ever be under the illusion that the Hokies will ever be a top 5 national title contender. We cant even beat a top 5 team, let alone stay in the top 5.
Mark r—
If BYU can sneak in a national title, our Hokies can too.
It is the longest of long shots, but for old time Hokies (I was there for “another cup of (cold) Coffey” and the 1972 aerial circus) who know if all the planets align it’s is still possible for the Hokies to surprise the football world.
You know the folks up in Bristol will love it — they love the nite games at the center of college football on any given Thursday (The Hokies are to TNF what the Raiders were to MNF.
The words of my late great Hokie friend Bill Jessee (his obit headline in the Virginian Pilot hangs on my wall — “Portsmouth Fan Took Being a Fan of the Hokies Seriouisly”) may ring true:
This is Our Year!
I’m praying he will look down and smile one Fall…
Arizona Hokie