Hokies to welcome seven January enrollees
Virginia Tech will officially welcome seven new scholarship players as January enrollees, the school announced Wednesday.
The seven include three recent high school graduates, three 2012 signees and one prep player. All seven begin classes at Tech on Monday and will take part in the team’s offseason conditioning program in addition to spring drills in March and April.
Follow me on Twitter and Facebook.
The three recent high school graduates in the group are defensive back Brandon Facyson of Newnan, Ga., offensive lineman Parker Osterloh of Williamsburg and quarterback Carlis Parker of Statesville, N.C.
The three 2012 signees are defensive lineman Woody Baron of Brentwood, Tenn., defensive lineman Seth Dooley of Salem, running back/linebacker Jerome Wright of Highland Springs. Baron and Dooley delayed their enrollment by a semester. Wright spent the fall at Fork Union.
Another Fork Union product, offensive lineman Jonathan McLaughlin of Mauldin, S.C., was cleared by the NCAA academically yesterday. He’s a former East Carolina commitment who switched to the Hokies last month.
His FUMA teammate Drew Harris, a highly-touted running back, tweeted yesterday that because of a paperwork error, he won’t be able to enroll at Virginia Tech until June. His recruitment is still technically open.
Because Facyson, McLaughlin, Osterloh and Parker are enrolling in January, none will sign a National Letter of Intent. Baron, Dooley and Wright’s national letters of intent from 2012 were still binding. Signing Day is Wednesday, Feb. 6 this year.
Here are previous blog posts written about each of the enrolling players:
January 16, 2013 - 2:52 PM
Just wondering why Drew Harris did not sign a Letter of Intent last year. You mention that his recruitment is officially still open. That makes me wonder he still plans to enroll at VT or is he actually considered a soft verbal and looking around for other opportunities.
Andy, nothing new on the January employees?
At this point, it’s in the red tape stage. I think it’s pretty clear VT will hire Scot Loeffler, Jeff Grimes and Aaron Moorehead as new coaches for Sherman, Newsome and O’Cain.
Getting someone at Virginia Tech to actually confirm it — someone of a high enough authority to run with, actually — is a different story. Could be a little while still.
Is it time to buy my NC tickets? Don’t even play Clemson, Florida State.
VT has to get by Bama, Miami, Unc, Pitt, MD, BC….and of course GT. Do you really think the Hokies are going to win more than 5 games? They could bring in the OC from the NE Patriots and wouldn’t make any difference. VT just does not have good players at this juncture. You know I am right.
Only two O Linemen? Better be more.
Yeah, speaking of January enrollees are we going to announce new coaches are we just going to wait and pretend nothing happened? I’ve never seen something so high profile handled this way – weird.
Good one Eagle – I think I wet myself a little.
VT has 2 more O linemen on their commitment list.
Pfaff and Chung.
Getting in January signees early eligibility is one of Beamers specialities.Hope some of them can contribute soon.
We have a really, really easy schedule…a Weaver special. We lose to Bama but win 10 out of the next 11 without problem. Book it!
Deja Vu….yes, you had a really easy schedule this year and we all know what happened. Nothing convinces me that the Hokies will have an easy time with Miami, UNC, BC or Duke. You people are delusional; you just don’t have the caliber of players like you used to. This new guy Loaffler won’t make squat worth of difference in the outcome; you will have 6 wins at the most.
Just saw this in Doughty’s story – Running back Drew Harris from Exton, Pa., efforts to enroll for the second semester have reached the eleventh hour. Fork Union coach John Shuman isn’t ruling out the possibility of a favorable ruling from the NCAA, despite reports that Harris can’t enroll till June.
“He increased his SATs, he got good grades here and now it’s a matter of waiting on the [NCAA] clearinghouse,” Shuman said. “We realize the deadline for admissions at Tech is next Monday. Academically and everything, he’s on track, especially out of Fork Union.
“It’s just come down to the reviewing of the paperwork. It’s done and it’s been submitted. I know the dad is not happy and he and the high school coach have called other schools.”
Shuman took a call from a University of Miami coach Tuesday, Rutgers called Wednesday and Temple came into the school to talk with Harris.
“If [the Harrises] want to open it up, that’s fine with us,” Shuman said. “By chance, if he’s not admitted by next Monday, they’re wondering, ‘What’s he going to do for the spring?’ ”
If he needs NCAA Approval to get enrolled in Tech, would not the same be for these other schools?
The hokies will run the table next year watch Go hokies!!!!!!
Andy,
Let about the strenth staff(A Really Good Group).But do we need to be bigger and stronger on the O-line to have a Good running game? or More powerful backs?
Cheech and Chong? Seriously now?
In the world of college football nobody knows the number of wins a team will have in the next year. There are too many things that are uncertain and too many things that can happen at any time.
Having said that, there is one thing for sure, and that is that Virginia Tech will not win the national championship.
Barry from ivy is a closet Hokie fan. Why else does he post on this site all the time?
I wouldn’t classify this past years schedule as easy – Clemson, FSU, both tough teams. Most of the rest of the schedule should have been winable though.
This schedule coming up though should be much easier with no FSU or Clemson. Alabama should be favored by about 17 though. This is indeed a Weaver special.
This is probably the worst home schedule we’ve had in recent history and we’ve had some bad ones.
Shut up Barry, this is the off season for crying out loud! Get a life, a hobby. Talk about delusional…
For those who say this class has no talent:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/teamrank/2013/all/all
The sad part, Scott, is we have the same old story with far less 4 & 5 star players than all the teams we are trying to catch. Not saying we don’t have a couple of 3′s that are very close to being 4′s though. We have good talent but not great which is how it has been for years.
24.Wake up bloggers…Barry can not possibly be a GT fan. I know the work of a Wahoo when I see it. Barry often harps on why he hates Virginia Tech, and everything about it so much. Why would a Georgia Tech fan hate on Virginia Tech so much? Because the Yellow Jacket offense is so boring to watch that he hates on the Hokies? Really, Georgia Tech runs the spread option and it is dreadful to defend but only throwing 3 or 4 passes a game? You think fans like that? Do you think receivers and QB’s just line up to go to GT to get a chance to make it to the NFL? (other than Calvin Johnson, the guy is a machine and probably could have went to the NFL after high school). Barry is not a GT fan, but a UVA fan in disguise because although Georgia Tech had a fair chance at the ACC title this year, UVA did not. To honestly call himself a UVA fan here on the blog would allow all of us to poke fun at him for a decade of losses at the hands of “stupid” (quoting Barry) people at Virginia Tech.
Actually George this was a very good class for VT. Just going back 5 years their recruiting classes consistently ranked 4th in the ACC and in around the low 20′s nationally. This year 14th nationally and 2nd in conf. is pretty darn good. Of course it’s all on paper and many times the recruits don’t pan out, or the team didn’t recruit their needs etc., but at least its a place to start.