Recapping the Hokies’ 2013 signing day
Yesterday was a busy day on the blog, with plenty of information on a bunch of posts, so I don’t blame you if you missed a couple. So today’s post will serve to recap everything from yesterday, a one-stop-shop to revisit everything from National Signing Day.
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I’ll start it out with a few links …
– First, my main story from signing day. The Hokies had their worst record in 20 years, but it didn’t affect their recruiting class, which ranked as one of their best in the last decade.
– Head coach Frank Beamer and recruiting coordinator Bryan Stinespring broke down the class at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. Here’s a recap of that.
– I did profiles for each of the Hokies’ signees, then linked to them all from the same post. Here is that post.
– Noticeably absent from that list is running back Drew Harris, a 2012 signee who didn’t qualify and spent the fall semester prepping at Fork Union Military Academy. He didn’t send in a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday for what I’ve been told are still issues with the NCAA Clearinghouse. Per a source, the issue is between the Clearinghouse and Harris’ high school and the matter is out of Virginia Tech’s hands. We shall see what that means about Harris’ future with the school. He had planned on a May/June enrollment anyway. I assume that is still the target. (UPDATE: I spoke with Harris’ father, also named Drew, who said that it’s an NCAA paperwork issue that they’re hoping can be cleared up within the next week. He said his son’s intention is and always has been to sign with Virginia Tech.)
– Just a bizarre story surrounding Midlothian safety Holland Fisher‘s commitment. He did so at his home while serving a suspension from school. Here’s the story from Eric Kolenich of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
– Virginia Tech had 14 signees Wednesday. Four members of the 2013 class (three high school players, one prep player) had already enrolled. Three more players who delayed their 2012 enrollment – Woody Baron, Seth Dooley, Jerome Wright – are also in school (they count against the 2012 numbers, apparently). Harris did not sign. So that’s 21 players in the fold of the 22 Tech expected to have by Wednesday.
– The strengths of the class? It’s heavy in defensive backs, a unit where the Hokies needed a large group to replenish depth lost over the years. Four offensive linemen is a start to building up the ranks up front. Cornerback Kendall Fuller is the jewel of the class, followed by Fisher, defensive end Wyatt Teller and quarterback Bucky Hodges. Additionally, they have quarterback Carlis Parker, an intriguing prospect who Beamer dared to say had some Michael Vick-like skills.
– What was lacking? Tech didn’t have a lot of defensive linemen in the group, although Teller is a highly-ranked player and the Hokies had stocked up on defensive linemen last year. So this is probably more the ebb and flow of recruiting years. Deon Newsome and David Prince sound like they’ll start out at receiver, but there are no tall receivers in the class in the Marcus Davis/D.J. Coles mold.
– Virginia Tech put on a very well done live signing day show, with Bill Roth handling the hosting duties and assistant coaches joining to talk about specific recruits. You can watch it here. It’s two hours, but I plan to pick out some of the pertinent info about recruits to post on the blog over the next week.
– Here’s the Hokies’ class broken down a little bit more ….
- 247Sports: 14th nationally, 2nd ACC (Accidentally used composite rankings earlier. This one is higher.)
- Rivals: 22nd nationally, 3rd ACC
- ESPN: 19th nationally, 3rd ACC
- QB (2) –Hodges, Parker
- RB (1) — Reid
- WR (0) — None
- TE (0) — None
- OL (4) — Chung, McLaughlin, Osterloh, Pfaff
- DE (1) — Teller
- DT (0) — None
- LB (1) — Motuapuaka
- OLB (1) — Moss
- FS (3) — Clark, Fisher, Shegog
- DB (1) — Facyson
- CB (2) — Fuller, Jefferson
- ATH (2) — Newsome (likely WR), Prince (likely WR)
State breakdown
- Virginia (12) — Clark, Fisher, Hodges, Jefferson, Motuapuaka, Newsome, Osterloh, Pfaff, Prince, Reid, Shegog, Teller
- North Carolina (2) — Moss, Parker
- South Carolina (1) — McLaughlin
- Maryland (1) — Fuller
- Georgia (1) — Facyson
- Florida (1) — Chung
By ranking (Rivals)
- 5-star (1) — Fuller
- 4-star (3) — Fisher, Hodges, Teller
- 3-star (14) — Chung, Clark, Facyson, Jefferson, McLaughlin, Moss, Motuapuaka, Newsome, Osterloh, Parker, Pfaff, Prince, Reid, Shegog
Top recruits
- 247Sports (247) — Fuller (31st), Fisher (36th), Teller (110th), Hodges (114th), Reid (234th)
- Rivals (250) — Fuller (9th), Teller (59th), Fisher (83rd), Hodges (171st)
- ESPN (300) — Fuller (18th), Fisher (98th), Jefferson (229th), Pfaff (254th)
February 7, 2013 - 12:24 AM
I would love to see this class bring back the exciting VT defenses and special teams play of the early and mid 2000′s. The lack of pick 6′s, blocked kicks and big returns have not only hurt the W column but also made tech games much less entertaining.
It seems good now, but time will tell.
The national ranking is about where it usually is for the Hokies, so that could be good, bad, or more of the same.
Let’s go Hokies !!!
AB, couple of questions for you – First could you put a WAG estimate on the likelihood of Harris eventually signing with VaTech? If he ends up going elsewhere, is there anywhere that you’ve heard whispered? Secondly, could you give us the top 4-5 schools in the ACC in terms of recruit rankings? If Rivals has us as the 3rd best ACC class, who did we edge, and who exceeded us? Thank you, lots of solid info above…
Harris’ deal sounds like it would prevent him from going to any D-I school right now. It’s very murky. It sounds like a very old issue that has nothing to do with his time at FUMA or anything with VT. It’s a bizarre case, but I’m not privy to all the details, so it’s hard to put any kind of percentage for a likelihood that he’ll end up in Blacksburg.
Crooked, I was going to do a post later today with all the ACC rankings. FSU had the top class in all the rankings. Clemson and Miami were up there too.
Looks like a very good group. Hopefully the coaches will lay down the law to Fisher, and put him on a short leash. We don’t need these kind of distractions.
We know Foster will get the most of out the guys on his side of the ball. It will be interesting to see what the new offensive coaches get out of ‘other people’s’ recruits. Time will tell what they can do with their own.
Andy, I was reading an article from Doug Doughty that said Tech picked up a punter as a walk on named Ludwig from Abington HS. Doughty reports he had a 43 yard average and kicked 40 out of 46 kickoffs out of the end zone. Do you have any information on Ludgig or other walk ons? I know that Beamer seems to rarely offers scholorships to kickers right out of HS. Any word on future field goal kickers?
Also, Andy I asked the other day if you had any information about the speed of any of the these new recruits. Any really fast guys in this group?
I don’t have a complete list of walk-ons. Those are tough to confirm sometimes, since VT can’t technically comment on guys who haven’t signed anything. Usually, you see stuff pop up in local papers about these guys accepting walk-on offers.
As for the speed of this group, Cequan Jefferson sounds pretty fast. Parker has some moves and speed. It’s hard to tel. They list 40 times on some of these recruiting websites, but it’s tough to trust those times. Plus, every one of these guys is fast against high school competition. We’ll see what they do against other college guys.
#1 Dools, the change in special teams effectiveness over the last several seasons is not due to available player talent. It is due to coaching focus. From the decision to use fewer starters on special teams to many other seemingly small modifications, they have combined to produce what we now have. Hopefully that facet of Hokie football receives the same sort of restructuring that the offense recently did, and soon.
Andy, one more question about walk-ons and my knowledge will be complete. I know the 85 limit scholarship rule but can Tech have as many players practicing or dressing for games or does the 85 apply there too.
10 day suspension for arguing with a teacher??? Ask any principal and they will tell you if a kid gets that many days suspension he’s had previous issues that warranted longer time out. Tech get wise and cut your losses with Holland Fisher now instead of wasting a scholarship on him that could go to more deserving student.
There’s a limit for number of guys who can practice before school starts. That limit is relaxed once class begins. I’m not sure if there’s a hard cap on players. But it’s usually over 100 guys on the roster, even if they dress for a game.
As for Fisher’s suspension, I’d say that’s certainly sanitized version of what happened. You don’t get a 10-day suspension for simply arguing with a teacher. There has to be more the story than that.
CR you are correct on the special teams personnel . I was watching a Hokie power hour video the other night (http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=atVNNR29GHA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DatVNNR29GHA) actually pretty cool if you have time to watch, but the video proves your point. Many of our favorite special teams plays came from our best athletes, I believe General Lee Suggs blocks a punt at one point in the mix. From what I’ve seen and read about this class, they are extremely athletic and have the ability to play in any three phases of the game. I don’t know why we ever got away from using our best players on special teams situations to turn the tide of the game, probably injury concerns, but either way, Beamer needs to re-instill the high risk high reward philosophy if he evers hopes to fill that empty case in the office.
Dools and crooked are right. Seemed like special teams just faded away. Like a been there, done that, got the Beamerball T shirt kinda thing. I know other teams stepped up their stuff, but if we were cutting edge once, we should have been striving to stay on that edge. Seems like we dialed it back. Not saying we gave up, just seems like the intensity of the plan was reduced. I do understand the injury concerns, and the coaches are paid to assess the risks/rewards, but it seems like a dramatic drop to me. Were kids getting hurt at an inordinate pace? Any injury is a bad one, but were there more than usual because of our emphasis? If so, I defer for the safety of our players. I will just say that I really enjoyed the hayday of Beamerball and long for it’s return.
What an asset! Scoring on special teams, blocking kicks, scaring the heck out of the other guy’s special teams…them were the days.