Comments on: Recruiting territories set for Hokies’ coaching staff

By: Rick H.

Rick H. — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:38:34 +0000

Andy, @15, your comments are really more about ‘targeted’ recruiting.

Crooked’s post pretty much sums it up.

You can’t necessarily recruit SWVa with a lot of emphasis, because the numbers are not there. It is a waste of time. It is a bunch of VHSL A schools. There are more targets in a single Tidewater school than all of the schools west of Roanoke, in Virginia.

Its like kids from NE Tennessee, if UT wants them, they’ll be Vols, and if kids from SWVa are wanted by VT, they’ll likely be Hokies. You truly recruit areas where there is some differential in choices.

In Tidewater and NOVA, schools like UVA, PSU, UNC and a couple others are close competition, but west of Blacksburg, in Virginia, Tech has what it wants, if it wants it, for the most part.

For UT, in NE Tenn, and VT, in SWVa, it is like fishing in a barrel – problem is, it is a very, very small barrel.

By: crooked road

crooked road — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:49:07 +0000

The original point #7 Rick H made was that it’s a waste of time trying to recruit East Tennessee. Folks can go back and re-read to understand. He then said that the recruiting in SW Va was weak (compared to so many other regions in Va). Thus, with the neighboring Va territory not a Hokie stronghold for talent, there’s no influence to get Tennessee recruits, even though the distance is half that from the 757. Hugely strong UTenn influence, weak Hokie influence hurt further by sparse talent from SW Va. He never said – don’t recruit SW Va. He said – you can’t convert east Tenn. He’s right. The time and effort in east Tenn would be better spent with Hokie coaches trying to prevent so many 4/5 star recruits from leaving our stronghold regions.

By: Barry from Ivy

Barry from Ivy — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 04:14:39 +0000

Adding Charlotte to Shane’s territory is a smart move, this would ensure the hot dog market would be greatly enhanced. The guy is a salesman, as I told you people earlier, I never liked hot dogs until Shane sold me on those convenience store brands. Did y’all notice those GT Yellow Jackets putting the whup on the Hokies basketball team? It is going to be a good year down South.

By: Andy Bitter

Andy Bitter — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 02:43:52 +0000

Population is important, but you can’t ignore parts of the state. A big part of recruiting is relationships. You build those over time. You can’t just pop in once every 10-15 years, when remote high schools have a legit D-I prospect. You do that groundwork over time. That’s really the biggest thing Beamer has going for him in recruiting.

By: Rick H.

Rick H. — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 02:37:19 +0000

@11, Rob, come on, you are spanning DECADES of recruiting SWVa. Tech can pull that many, or even better, in one class from Tidewater, and, you are pulling some pretty weak names, outside of Dale, Houseright, and Francisco. Let’s put together one class from Tidewater, or even NOVA, and you get bigger output than those, in one year. Don’t cherry pick on this. Population drives opportunity, and the population of NOVA and TW are far greater than SWVa.

By: checker

checker — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 02:06:26 +0000

Rob,

You forgot Ahmad Bradshaw from Bluefield. Not sure who the guys in your list are.

By: Hokie79

Hokie79 — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:47:46 +0000

I agree that we do not want to lose the top notch players from in-state. However, to be a top 5 team we need to pursue more Florida and Texas areas. To me it seems odd that WVU gets alot of talent from Florida. Why would they want to go to Morgantown? Maybe its the type of offense they run, but I would hope VT could outrecruit WVU.

By: crooked road

crooked road — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:40:57 +0000

#7 Rick H, I agree with you on the lack of return on effort that would come from recruiting eastern Tennessee. That are is so overwhelmingly UT Vol-centric it would be a lottery pick to get talent out of there. The time & effort is much better expended elsewhere.

As to the exceptions someone else made to your SWVA comment, I notice he had to go back 50 years to list 6 notable players. That kind of makes your point for you. Yes, there is talent in far SW Va, but it is much more sparse than in the talent rich spots of the 757, Richmond, & NoVa areas. Much more. That’s not an insult, it’s just the numbers.

The strategy seems to make sense to me, as I’ve mentioned on here previously, especially the part of position specific recruiting for Loeffler & Grimes. I also think the most notable exceptions to the ‘six hour rule’ should be QB’s, OL, & DL.

By: Rob Thommins

Rob Thommins — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:18:01 +0000

#7:
“SWVa football is really weak”

Tommy Francisco
Carroll Dale
Paul Adams
Jake Houseright
Neal McMeans
Justin Hamilton

All from West of Wytheville.
Yeah SW Va. is pretty weak.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:40:41 +0000

Virginia is loaded with talent but not in all areas like OL for instance. For OL at least VT should’ve scrapped the whole 6 hour radius philosophy and done it a long time ago. If you’re talking about neighboring states that are neglected how about North Carolina. VT could do a lot better in a very talented state. I don’t know what a couple of you’re talking about Tennessee for. It doesn’t produce many good players at all