Hokies 2011 Recruiting: More With Less
It’s becoming a common refrain. Do more with less. The economy has driven businesses to cut costs, families are cutting back, and in this case, the Hokie Football program has to be efficient as well.
In the 2010 class, Virginia Tech only signed 20 commitments. The annual allowance is somewhere around 25, there are rules that allow more than 25, but for the sake of simplicity we’ll call it a limit of 25. The total limit on the number of scholarship football players is 85 and that limit is a hard number. In the case of Virginia Tech’s recruiting for 2010, they couldn’t give more than 20 scholarships before hitting the limit of 85. In 2011, their work gets even tougher.
By the way the numbers add up, Virginia Tech should have about 15 scholarships to give in the 2011 class. Things can change though. Players decide to go pro early. Sometimes players drop out or transfer. Overall, in 2011 Tech will have to do more with less.
The Hokies already have their first recruit of the 2011 class in Ronnie Vandyke, 6-3 185 DB out of Lorton, Virginia. Tech is already in on almost every top recruit in the state, including a bunch from The 757. With about 14 scholarships left, who does Tech really pursue? It’s a little too early to tell.
Tech is already pursuing Curtis Grant 6-3 220 LB out of Heritage High School in Richmond. He’s the #1 player in Virginia for the 2011 class, according to most services. Virginia Tech is listed as a school of interest to every prospect in Rivals’ Virginia Top 20. Most every kid in that Top 10 has an offer from the Hokies, including Lafonte Thoroughgood of Ocean Lakes, Quinta Funderburk of Oscar Smith, Travis Hughes of Kempsville and Tra Nicholson of Bayside. Clifton Richardson of Menchville has a Tech offer too, but as of now Richardson has verbally committed to Virginia.
That leads us to another contender. UVA will make a dent in the state’s Top 20 this year. Tech won’t take an in-state player with every scholarship and UVA will get a bunch, but that leaves somewhere near half of the Top 20 to go somewhere else. There are also players outside the Top 20 that will land BCS scholarships as well.
The fortunate thing for Tech is that a shortage of scholarships means that they have more players coming back. 15 incoming players means 70 players that are either on the active roster or redshirting this year. Tech will be deep. The season opener against Boise State should be a thriller since Boise State returns 21 out of 22 starters from last year’s team.
College Football season can’t get here quickly enough.
Videos Wanted for recruit757.com
High School Coaches! Recruit757.com will launch soon and we’re regularly adding videos to the site from our library of highlights from the 2009 season. If you have 2009 game film that you’d like to see cut-up into highlight packages on recruit757.com, please contact me at andy@recruit757.com.
There is no cost at all to have your players featured on recruit757.com. We’re looking to get local high school football players off to college on scholarship at a school that fits their abilities. You let us know who’s college bound, you provide the video, we edit it and get it on the web for all to see.
You can see a small library of our highlight videos on the recruit757 Fan Page on Facebook. recruit757.com will launch soon and we want to see every school in the 757 represented there!
Beatty Adds Recruiting Coordinator Title at WVU
The promotion says a lot about Chris Beatty as a man, as a coach and as a recruiter. WVU coach Bill Stewart has announced that Coach Chris Beatty will add the responsibilities of Director of Recruiting to his plate. Additionally, Beatty will coach Fullbacks in 2010. That group is added to his current responsibilities of coaching running backs and slot receivers.
Beatty’s rise to coaching stardom has been a quick one. Beatty was a high school coach until Percy Harvin finished his high school career at Landstown High School in Virginia Beach. Beatty moved on to become offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Hampton University in 2006. In 2007, Beatty became running backs coach at Northern Illinois. The departure of Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia opened the door for Beatty to join a BCS staff. Beatty started his tenure at WVU in 2008 and hasn’t looked back.
Beatty has been recognized as a top recruiter and now will head up the recruiting efforts for WVU since the departure of Doc Holliday who moved on to become head coach at Marshall University. Since Beatty has numerous 757 connections, you can expect Beatty and WVU to continue to recruit heavily here.
Congrats on the promotion, Coach Beatty!
Tennessee Recruiting Scandal Affecting 2010 Class
By now, you’ve heard about the accusations surrounding the Volunteer Football program. Allegedly, a student group known as Orange Pride has been utilized to help football recruiting efforts by sending attractive co-eds to out-of-state high school football games, host recruiting targets when they come to Knoxville for official visits, and so forth. The NCAA hasn’t ruled on the accusations yet, but NCAA officials have already spoken out against the practices. Probation or sanctions against the football program are possible.
You can imagine that could have a negative effect on recruits who are uncomfortable with the accusations. Yahoo! Sports recently interviewed several Vol commits who were in San Antonio for the upcoming U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
The biggest part of the Orange Pride story involved Tennessee commit Corey Miller, Brandon Willis (now decommitted) and Marcus Lattimore. Corey Miller remains committed to the Vols despite the controversy. Army All-American Defensive End Jaques Smith also remains committed to the Vols and expressed disappointment at how the incident played out in the media.
Defensive End prospect Brandon Willis re-opened his recruitment after hearing about the scandal and considering his place at Tennessee. The threat of an NCAA judgement against the Volunteers was enough to make him cross the Vols off of his list. It sounds like his verbal commitment might have been shaky to begin with.
Recruiting can be a shady business. There are certainly a lot of gray areas. When it comes down to it, as a recruit you have to do what’s right for you. Many Tennessee commits are staying put. If it doesn’t feel right though, you have examine your options. It sounds like Brandon Willis did the right thing for himself. Who can argue with that?