Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Evan Watkins: Recruiting Seminar 2021

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Evan Watkins: Recruiting Seminar 2021 · Boundary Corner Podcast

0:46
Welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast with my partner
0:51
Brian C glow. I am Curtis Wilson run We've
0:56
been talking for quite a few months about recruiting, and we
1:01
have a treat for Eyre. Listeners tonight, ladies and
1:07
gentlemen, we have Evan Watkins joining us from 24/7 Sports VT.
1:12
Scoop PT scoop.com currently offering first month for one
1:19
dollar and thirty percent off after that.
1:21
So, a great deal for a great site.
1:24
And then, how are you this evening?
1:25
I can't complain. I can't complain at all.
1:28
How you all doing? Doing good, doing good.
1:31
Nice to have you on. Thanks for joining us.
1:34
Been a good day for you so far. Yeah, yeah.
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You know, got to, you know, get up early break a break likely
1:43
commitment coming, have it knocked out within, you know,
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lunchtime and then roll right into run into some some time
1:50
with the family. So yeah, it's been a really good
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day so far. Awesome, man, awesome.
1:56
Awesome to hear that man. And guys we're going to cover
1:59
plus or topics with Evans today including the commitment a
2:02
little earlier. Today, we're going to hit that a
2:04
little later but Brian I want to start out Evan with this you
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know, big news of this week. Was hokey director of
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recruiting, John Etsy stepped aside, you know, while he was in
2:15
Blacksburg, he took the recruiting staff from very
2:20
small, especially by power 5 standards, and now it's kind of
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grown significantly. And, you know, it's getting
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bigger, we're seeing people getting added, you know, even
2:28
during the time of code. That's so Evan sort of having
2:31
the connection to the program knowing the people, what's going
2:34
to be sort of the biggest Maybe the toughest part for the next
2:37
guy to fill what John did and what?
2:40
John brought to the table. Yeah, you know, John was a guy,
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you know, he actually started when he was a college student.
2:48
He actually started working avetis Coop before he was
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recruiting director at Virginia Tech.
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So, you know, we've known him for a long time.
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He was actually ivt scoop before, I was really that
3:03
involved with it, you know. And And he took that the
3:08
opportunity for being a student at Virginia Tech to, you know,
3:12
graduating from Virginia Tech getting to work in their
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recruiting department. You know, he's one of those
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guys, you know, they have plenty of them up there right now, but
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it's one thing to sell a university.
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It's another thing to sell your University, he's all about
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Virginia Tech. Always has been always will be
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and I think that really helped him, you know, To the day.
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He cared about what was on the shirt.
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He cared about the university that he was at, you know, he
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still does. He obviously, he got a business
3:48
opportunity outside of college football that he really couldn't
3:53
turn down. You know, we had heard for
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probably four or five years that other schools were interested in
4:01
poaching him. He had opportunities doing some
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other things that's the other places and just never really
4:08
wanted to leave. But this one was too good of an
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opportunity to turn down. You know, never want to fault
4:14
somebody for trying to better them and their family situation.
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So, you know, I hope everything works out for him, you know,
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he's a guy that has really helped Virginia Tech.
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He would wake up in the morning and try to figure out what,
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what's the best way to make, Virginia Tech, football better
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and reach the Pinnacle for. You know, what they were trying
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to do. You know and what he was able to
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accomplish. Obviously he did build out that
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help build out that recruiting department a little bit you
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know. And I think that's going to
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continue to build out. I think, you know, when Justin
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Fuente spoke a few weeks ago after signing day and said, he
4:56
really could see the future of college football.
4:59
Branching off into two, separate recruiting departments, a High
5:03
School prep, Juco Department, And a transfer portal
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Department. I think he was foreshadowing.
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What he's expecting Virginia Tech to do?
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I think we're going to start to see some of that come to
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fruition. Now, obviously, it's not the
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easiest of times to hire people, right now, you know, you got an
5:21
athletic department, that's told everybody, to take a ten
5:23
percent, pay cut, you have budget cuts, and and some
5:28
deficits all over the place due to covid.
5:30
We don't know what's going to happen with covid.
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We don't know. You know, is this Going to
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continue with the 20, the 20 21 season be impacted.
5:41
What's the financial impact of it?
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You have to add in as well. You know, the, the carry-on of
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the scholarships for another year.
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I mean that's a big undertaking, that's a lot of financial
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burden. So, you know, I think, I think
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the plan I think Justin Fuente was foreshadowing, the plane.
5:59
I think. John Yeti helped lay out the
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blueprint for that. Will we see that overnight know?
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No, you know, everybody talks about that.
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There's a, you know, there's some funding that's becoming
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available there some donors that have stepped up to the call.
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You have a big giving day drive. That's going to kick off here in
6:19
the in the near future for for the University.
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And for athletics, but money, money is not where it needs to
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be. It wasn't before covid, it
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probably will take years to recover from covid, so it's
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going to be a slower process. But I do fully believe from all
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the contacts, I've talked to, from everything I've seen with
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my own eyes up and up in Blacksburg.
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I do think the Justin Fuente wants to build out that
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recruiting department. I think that's part of his goal,
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is to take a lot of the stress in the, the, the the finding of
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the players of the recruits and the initial contact and and, you
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know, the mundane parts of Of the recruiting process and have
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those jobs staffed by a staff of qualified individuals that can
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do all of that, they can filter out the Huddle film.
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They can, you know, they can coordinate early, you know,
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early development of the relationship.
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They can reach out to the kids on social media.
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They can gather phone phone numbers, they can gather
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coaching contacts. And take some of that off of
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what we, you know, what a lot of Virginia Tech fans or us in the
7:43
industry would say Falls right now, on the coaching staff,
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there is a, you know, there's a decent group of recruiting staff
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up there in Blacksburg right now.
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I don't want to say that there's not but when you compare, you
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know, five to six guys with Clemson, having 20-plus with
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North Carolina, having 20 plus with Alabama, having ungodly
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amount of people that filter out recruiting information before he
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even touches the coaches desks. Absolutely, you can see that it
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is clearly not an even playing field and that's the biggest
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change that I think Justin Fuente and Virginia Tech need to
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make dump money into the recruiting department to take
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the stress off the coaches, let you know, let some qualified
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smart individuals that Understand the recruiting
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process and understand the evaluation process get in there
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and be the filtration system and I think that's only going to
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help grow Virginia Tech football, they're recruiting
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there on the field and off the field results and that would be
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my first step and I think we are.
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I like I said, I think we're at the the little bit of the
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precipice of seeing that I think is going to happen but covid and
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some other things I have thrown a wrench in Side of Justin
9:06
Fuente. And with Babcock's hands have
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kind of slowed things down just a bit.
9:11
Sure. And I like how you itemize kind
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of what those aspects of the recruiting roles could because I
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feel like a lot of people don't necessarily understand the those
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nuances in those small little things that taking that off the
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plate of someone else and giving that to a qualified person that
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knows what they're doing that. That's what they do every day
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when they come into work. How much that could better, the
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situation we have in how that's pretty much the standard across
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most of these power 5 opponents that were playing.
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So yeah, I like that you were able to hit on that because that
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I think is kind of a big piece of the puzzle that I don't think
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a lot of people talk about enough.
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Yeah. And you know, when you look at
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recruiting, it's not a nine-to-five job.
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You know, even even college, football coaching has an
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offseason. There's an off chance. .
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There's a time when you can take a little bit of a break from the
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day to day, you can't do that with recruiting with recruiting,
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it is 365 days a year. It is 24 hours a day.
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You have kids that, you know, when you are recruiting a guy
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like DJ Harvey now here your cross the country.
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So now your time, different time zones when you're recruiting
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guys, like Robert Wooten like Alec Bryant.
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Now you're different time zones again.
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In Texas and you have to balance all of that.
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When you now there are, you know, obviously there are time
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periods where you cannot talk directly with recruits or you
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can't talk to them face-to-face and things like that and and
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that's a bit of a break, but you still are talking with their
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coaches. You're still talking with their
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trainers, you're still, you know, gathering information on
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recruits and then you have to add in, you know, it's say that
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you are, let's say you're going to sign. 25 players in a year,
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you know, if you're not Stanford, if you're not Clemson
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and maybe some of these other very selective schools, we're
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going to say that you're going to throw out 230 offers.
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Now this 230 offers you can say probably 50 of those to 75 of
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those they're completely out of reach for you.
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These are guys that have no interest in Virginia Tech, these
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are guys that can't academically go there.
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These are guys. Guys that are blue chip players
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that you know is an uphill battle so you can toss those out
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but you're still looking, you know, 100 and 150 180 guys that
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you are recruiting for just that year.
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Then you multiply that by 4, that's how many kids you have to
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build relationships with on an average.
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That's how many coaches. That's how many parents, you
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know, people talk about. About recruiting and, you know,
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you have to do to be a great recruiter.
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You know, you have to be like a used car salesman and you have
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to be this, you, you really have to be a tireless worker, who
12:15
loves communication? That's really what it comes down
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to. If you can, if you're okay in
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that setting, if you're okay, you know, we talked about this
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before, some people bring it up is you know, trying to pick up a
12:28
girl at a bar. I don't necessarily agree with
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that analogy because if You want to go and pick up a girl at a
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bar that's that, you know, that's that's your initial
12:37
conversation. That's who we're talking about
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an engagement. You want to talk to this person,
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you want to get them to be engaged with you.
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You want to get them on campus and marry you and live with you
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for four to five years. And then you have to do that.
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For 25 other kids 24, other kids, you have to get them to do
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is make the same deal with you every year.
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Like it's one of those things people put be recruiting black
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and white. When really Rowdy is is probably
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the most fluid thing in the world, add on top of it.
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You're dealing with 16 to 19 year old children.
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They? Change their mind over, what to
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eat, they change their mind, over what to wear to change
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their mind over. You know what they want to do
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after school, talking to them about where you want to spend
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four years. Five years is not the easiest
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thing in the world and then you have to add in the, you know,
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they might even commit to you and that's great.
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Now you have to keep them committed, you know, until until
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they sign that National Letter written and even then like we've
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seen in the past, you know, like Zach Evans you signed a national
13:58
letter of intent and then you back out of it.
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Yeah, so really, I mean, Recruiting a marathon and
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everybody wants it to be a Sprint.
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I wanted to be a Sprint. It would make my job easier but
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it's in there it is. You have to cultivate these
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relationships for years. And then, you know, you get them
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on campus, you got to keep them happy because if not, they'll
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hit the transfer portal, they might even badmouth you on the
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way out. And then you lose any shot at
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kids that there Friends with any kids that are at their High
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School, you make their High School coaches.
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Mad. I mean, you know, we had, we had
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this long discussion on BT scoop, you know, a couple for
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the past couple of weeks with Darryl Tapp leaving, Virginia
14:50
Tech to go to the NFL. I don't blame him at all, he's
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got the absolute 100% best personality for recruiting, but
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who wants that job? I mean, who Who wants their
15:06
livelihood to depend on the the decision-making of 16 and 19
15:14
year old kids that you know, how met you make, or you may pour
15:18
years and years into them. And then somebody else comes
15:21
along with a better pitch at our school, better academics are
15:26
better off the field life and and can steal them from you at
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the last minute. I mean, just think rationally
15:32
about it is a tough Tough profession, you know, and it's
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it's not for everyone, I'll tell you that.
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But it's a, you know, going back to what, what to do Virginia
15:44
Tech if you take You know, all those relationships you have to
15:48
cultivate and you say, hey we're going to throw that on these 10
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assistant coaches and Justin Fuente don't have time.
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Now, college coach has time, that's why we have seen support
15:59
staffs grow year in and year out the growing exponentially, every
16:04
school, you know, even your schools like Old Dominion, have
16:08
them even your FCS schools. James Madison is building out
16:11
recruiting departments. Everyone needs recruiting
16:14
departments, Virginia Tech has A recruiting department.
16:17
Now, they need to Beef It Up, they need to pour some money
16:19
into it. Take a lot of this pressure off
16:22
of the ten assistance, and Justin Fuente and you know, hit
16:27
the ground, you know, hit the pavement hard, hit the pavement
16:30
fast and see, you know, kind of see what shakes out when you
16:34
cast that really wide net. Then you filter it out to your
16:38
core board of recruits you want and let the coaches go out and
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try to Feast. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up
16:45
tap because I mean that That's what we had talked about the
16:47
same thing and really kind of reiterated.
16:49
What you said is that, you know, it's a guy going to a similar
16:53
type role with an NFL organization wants to win a
16:56
title, and he doesn't have to recruit.
16:58
I mean, that's a, that's a big part of what he's been doing
17:01
day-to-day in the last, you know, year plus that now he's
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not even, it's not even on his plate anymore.
17:07
So and let me go ahead and piggyback off that.
17:10
So, you know, with, with Darryl Tapp leaving, we got JC price.
17:15
Now coming in, And on top of replacing as the code defensive
17:20
line coach. He's also taking on the the
17:23
defensive recruiting coordinator position with Adam Lichtenberg
17:28
taking over that as a, on the offensive side, getting a
17:31
promotion there. What do you think are some
17:34
advantages on the recruiting trail with this type of role for
17:38
these two, coaches relative to what the Hokies are, trying to
17:41
do with building that recruiting department up as well?
17:45
So typically, you know, pre covid, you would have your
17:48
recruiting coordinators, you're on the field.
17:51
Coaches with one or two would be designated as a recruiting
17:54
coordinator and that helps them on the road.
17:58
You know, it doesn't necessarily help them when they're back in
18:01
the offices, in the War Room, building up the board and, and
18:04
doing all of that, that helps them on the road, you know,
18:08
coordinating a lot of the stuff. But, you know, when you talk
18:12
about like a recruiting director, recruiting
18:14
coordinator, Essentially right now, under covid rules, they're
18:17
kind of the same thing because support staff is allowed to
18:20
contact recruits, you know, over the phone on social media,
18:24
things like that, and coaches aren't allowed to go out on the
18:28
road. So there's not really that big
18:30
of a difference. And to me, not really nothing.
18:34
Really is going to change. You know, Adam Lichtenberg
18:37
behind the scenes has been a phenomenal higher in my opinion,
18:43
when it comes to recruiting. He's a guy that's got a lot of
18:46
contacts and he's a guy that is a tireless worker.
18:50
I mean, he's whenever I talk to, you know, some contacts of mine
18:54
or I talk to High School coaches or even talk to, you know, some
18:57
of the contacts I have it jute, the Juco level.
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They all talk about how Lichtenberg is a guy, he may not
19:03
win every recruit, but he is not going to be outworked.
19:08
So and I want to, I want to make sure that people understand that
19:11
that's not me saying he's gonna go out and land every person on
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his board. Yeah, that's me saying he is
19:17
going to work as hard as humanly possible to give her Gina Tech.
19:20
The best chance to land that person.
19:23
Now, there might be somebody out there that can offer more.
19:25
There might be schools that can offer National Championship, you
19:28
know, possibilities road to the NFL things like that, that
19:33
Virginia Tech doesn't, you know, may not be able to offer it that
19:35
position but He's a tireless tireless worker.
19:39
So we do when you're back in Blacksburg and they're back in
19:44
the war room and they're going over the board, nothing really
19:47
changes for Adam. Lichtenberg this is the role he
19:50
already had. He was already doing it, he just
19:52
didn't have the title of it. The title was kind of a pat on
19:57
the back. Thanks for all the recruiting
19:59
help that you do. Thanks for everything that
20:01
you've done for just under Justin Fuente Resume Builder.
20:05
Here's your title JC Price, kind of the same thing, you know,
20:10
I've met JC price a few times when he would come to Virginia
20:14
Tech for after summer camps, when Martin, you know, when they
20:18
were always invite Marshall to come in and evaluate some kids
20:21
as well? He was always there.
20:23
Really, really energetic guy. My big question when they were
20:28
replacing tap was I think JC price of great fit.
20:32
I think he's, I think he's 100% the the right guy to step into
20:36
that role. It would he want to split
20:39
duties. I thought of that was going to
20:41
be a hang up, you know, not, everyone wants to share duties.
20:45
When you get that job, you know, at the school you went to and
20:49
you want to kind of be the guy, you know, you want to be the guy
20:53
you don't want. They want to to split that role
20:56
amongst somebody else. So I think this was a great way
21:00
for Virginia Tech to entice him and say, Hey, you might be the
21:02
assistant d-line coach, but we want you to oversee all of our
21:06
defensive Ting you know unofficially what I had heard
21:12
was this was kind of what Justin Hamilton was doing you know I
21:16
don't even have the title of it but Justin Hamilton had a major
21:19
say in all of the defensive recruiting make sense of the D
21:23
coordinator should sign off. What this does is take a little
21:26
bit off of his plate and allow him to spend a little bit more
21:30
time on focusing on being the defensive coordinator.
21:34
So you know, when it comes to You know, you know, breaking it
21:40
down to like the brass tacks of it.
21:43
Is there going to be a major return on investment by
21:46
labeling? These two guys recruiting
21:48
coordinators offensive and defensive, not that we will see
21:51
immediately what I do think it does is furthers that Foundation
21:58
that I talked about earlier that, you know, I think, let's
22:01
say that the recruiting department does start to split a
22:04
little bit into Juco, high school and And transfer portal,
22:09
and all of that. Now, you can take that
22:12
information and you can filter that into to record recruiting
22:17
coordinators. Who can then look at it.
22:20
Yes. No.
22:21
And then you know, kind of send out the hounds to do the
22:25
recruiting and oversee it. And then when you think, you
22:28
know, you go in that war room and you say, hey, we need, you
22:33
know, X number of wide receivers X numbers are running back
22:36
things like that, you know, Now, we'll have a little bit more
22:40
buy-in with the ten assistance. Now, obviously the recruiting
22:44
stock will heavily be involved there, as well.
22:46
No, but I think we're just looking at the foundation, and
22:49
I've mentioned this before. I tell people all the time,
22:53
don't get bogged down with titles in college football,
22:59
because most of the time they're meaningless, and I don't want
23:03
that to like, to not to belittle in either coaches, or taking
23:07
anything away from sure. But associate head coach
23:10
assistant head coach. I mean, you have a head coach.
23:13
If he goes down, you have your number two.
23:16
Okay, you don't need, we don't need three guys.
23:18
With this name, we don't need All of these different, you
23:22
know, ins and outs and nuances of these names that may or may
23:27
not coordinate with what you actually do as your job, which
23:31
can then only make it murkier when you go to hire.
23:34
Somebody, you know, you go out to hire a Director of
23:38
recruiting, you know, to replace John yet.
23:41
See would, but we, you look at the, the actual job duties of
23:47
maybe, what might Mark diet horn?
23:49
Does that might be more in line with the director of recruiting,
23:53
where, then you might be looking at a director of player
23:55
Personnel the higher but then you have to do another title
23:58
switch, it just gets kind of convoluted and it gets kind of
24:02
confusing. So I never try to get bogged
24:05
down into the titles because I think a lot Of those are just
24:08
resume builders and, you know, reasons to give people
24:13
additional income, you know, to give them an additional raise,
24:16
or a benefit. So I'm trying not to get bogged
24:20
down on that stuff. But I do think what we are
24:22
seeing right now is the early Foundation.
24:25
It might take years, honestly, with covid and everything and
24:28
financial issues. But I think we're seeing the
24:31
foundation being laid for Virginia Tech, splitting out
24:33
there, recruiting duties, and I don't think it can hurt.
24:36
I think it can only help here. You okay?
24:38
So what you're saying, essentially is that we got the
24:40
roles the roles there, but the structure behind the scenes
24:44
matter, a whole lot, more than the titles that are being thrown
24:47
at these coaches at this point. Absolutely.
24:50
I, you know, when you, when you get down into the titles it's
24:53
every school calls, them different things.
24:55
All the job duties are different regardless of what the title is,
25:00
you know, when it comes down to support staff and it comes down
25:02
to recruiting staff, you know. They only is, you know, there's
25:06
a very Defined structure for that organization or that that
25:14
Branch, if you will of the, the football staff at any school,
25:18
you know, they all do about the same thing, titles are all
25:21
different, you know. But when you when you think
25:23
about, you know what their actual job duties are day to
25:27
day, I try not to get bogged down in the in the in the zeros
25:32
and ones of the job title Morris what they're going to bring to
25:36
the table and what they do for The university.
25:39
Well, Evan, you know, John's gone, where do you see them
25:43
going? What kind of skill sets?
25:45
Are they going to bring in to take essentially his role or
25:48
favorite eyelet director of player Personnel?
25:50
I mean, are they going to bring in someone off one of these
25:53
larger staffs for an upgrade, or they all look for more
25:55
established individual? You know, I'm not sure which
26:00
direction they're going to go in.
26:01
Yet, I dunno where I've heard that they've been doing several
26:05
interview. Several rounds of interviews
26:07
with some different, for some different positions in the
26:09
recruiting staff, because it's not just his position that's
26:12
open. There are some others as well.
26:14
So, you know, when you look at what Virginia Tech has brought
26:19
in on their off-the-field roles, you know, for their support
26:22
staff. They brought in, you know drawn
26:25
gouveia Winslow, you bring in Cory Fuller you know you're
26:30
already have po Pearson pray luo off the off the field as well,
26:35
it seems to me but when you brought in they brought in you
26:38
know, Mark that horn, obviously he went to Virginia Tech as
26:40
well. You have a lot of Virginia Tech
26:45
alumni there and I think like I mentioned earlier, it's a
26:47
difference in selling a university and selling your
26:51
University. I think they have to look for
26:53
somebody. It has ties to Virginia Tech.
26:55
Now that could be somebody at another school.
26:57
Obviously it could be somebody that you know, maybe comes up
27:01
through the grad assistant program, that's been at Virginia
27:04
Tech a few years and they want to promote.
27:07
But, you know, I think it's going to be somebody.
27:09
I think it needs to be people with ties to Blacksburg and to
27:13
Virginia Tech. You know, I think I think that
27:16
there is something special about Blacksburg, but I think that
27:22
there's something That makes it. So there's some skewed,
27:29
something skewed about it for some people, some people don't
27:32
like it, some people love it and I think if you can have somebody
27:36
that has lived it and somebody that has you know been immersed
27:41
in it from a student aspect, you know.
27:44
Maybe maybe even not even a student aspect.
27:47
But growing up, you know, going into Lane stadium and going to
27:50
the games and things like that. I think that you can sell it a
27:53
little bit better. And I think if you're Virginia,
27:57
I think that's where you kind of hone in on, you know, you, you
28:00
have the history of Brothers, you have, you know, a solid
28:05
history of Walk-Ons. You have this family
28:07
environment, you've built this brand on from, you know, from
28:12
Frank, Beamer and carried on to Justin Fuente.
28:16
And I think you have to fully lean in on that.
28:18
You know, if you bring in somebody off the streets, you
28:22
know, they might have a lot of really good ideas.
28:24
You know, you might bring in somebody from Alabama and
28:26
they've got They've got great ideas on how to do this, but
28:30
financially may not be possible or within the constraints of
28:34
Blacksburg, it may not be possible, or within the ad
28:37
structure, it may not be possible.
28:39
So I think finding somebody that understands, you know, Southwest
28:46
Virginia understands the state of Virginia, the importance of
28:48
recruiting, the state has connections, you know,
28:52
throughout the state, not just the hot beds but be able to
28:55
cultivate relationships throughout the You know, that's
28:58
where I'm looking. I'm looking for somebody that
29:00
can that can sell Virginia Tech for what it is and has those
29:05
connections to try and help keep people from the state of
29:08
Virginia, from keep them from leaving and you know, convince
29:12
them to look at look at what's going on in Blacksburg, okay?
29:17
It's like selling a product that you use versus selling a product
29:19
that you're just getting paid to sell.
29:22
Absolutely. I mean, it's everybody always
29:25
says, you know, when you walk into a high school School, it
29:28
matters. What's on your shirt, but it
29:31
really matters if you believe what's on your shirt, you know,
29:34
that's the big thing. If you can believe in it, you
29:38
know, you can you can sell it really, really well.
29:41
You know, that's not to say, there's not really good, you
29:44
know, car salesman could go from 4 to Toyota and sell just as
29:49
well because he's selling a good product.
29:51
You know, however way you look you look at it but you know, if
29:54
you are a person that has You know, grown up in it, been
29:59
immersed in it and fully believe in it, you know, and believe in
30:04
what it can be. I think that you can only help
30:07
yourself. I don't think you can hurt
30:08
yourself at all in that situation.
30:10
So, you know, I think, I think Virginia Tech would be smart to
30:13
try and find some more alumni or former players to come into that
30:19
recruiting staff role and try to try to not only build their
30:23
career towards towards working in the college football or
30:26
working in the profession. All ranks but also cultivate
30:29
relationships in the state and show that it is a family.
30:31
And, you know, everybody's welcome back and you know why
30:35
you should join the Brotherhood. Awesome, I like that.
30:39
So let's let's go ahead and pivot here.
30:41
We're going to talk talk covid a little bit because I know that's
30:44
created a lot of unique challenges for recruiting so you
30:50
know we know the Dead period and the high schools, you know, for
30:52
a long time or even letting folks come on campus and things
30:55
like that. And I know came down today that
30:58
we're talking even more about potentially extending the Dead
31:01
period, even further. But I just want to get your
31:05
perspective on what some of the other challenges that covid
31:07
presented on the recruiting side of things.
31:10
Yeah, you know, and here I can throw a couple numbers out at
31:13
you is 24/7 Sports ran out really good article on this
31:16
recently that FBS college football teams signed more than
31:21
400 fewer recruits to Scholarships in 2021 than they
31:25
did for 2020 and 2019, holy cow. So that that is clearly
31:32
eye-opening. I would say now 2022, might be
31:37
worse and that's You know, that's where things can start to
31:41
get a little scary, but we'll start, we'll start with 2021.
31:44
So when you're in 2021, when you're, you know, when you're
31:49
trying to to recruit 21 and covid hits, you are, if you are
31:56
not one of the top will estimate will round to 400.
32:01
If you are not one of the top 400 players in this in the
32:04
country, your rankings may not matter, kind of at all, to be
32:09
honest, because the big ranking periods for you outside.
32:14
That top 400 would be junior film.
32:17
Eval spring workouts, summer camps senior season.
32:24
Now, you can players in the state of Virginia, they had to,
32:28
they had, they had their junior season.
32:31
And no Spring football, no spring workouts, at all, you
32:34
have no summer camps at all. You have no senior season.
32:40
Before signing day three out of the four ranking opportunities.
32:44
You had are gone. Now, that also means three out
32:51
of the four, major scholarship opportunities.
32:53
You had are now gone as well. So you you not only you not only
33:02
could be somebody that all through the cracks, you are also
33:06
somebody that even if a school takes a chance on you, That
33:11
school is taking a major Risk by offering you a scholarship.
33:17
If you haven't played football in a year, they haven't seen
33:20
you, they haven't see you on campus to see, are you really 64
33:25
or are you 61? Are you really 220 pounds?
33:29
Are you really 180 pounds? You know, they can't get you out
33:33
of Camp to say. You were say you ran a 44 and we
33:36
clocked you out of 49. So, you're taking a major Risk
33:41
by offering those scholarships. Now, on top of that, what you
33:46
have to balance out and a lot of college coaches did balance this
33:49
out. Is, do we take that risk on a
33:55
borderline recruit? We're not talking the five-star,
33:58
we're talking the mid three-star, guy that may or may
34:01
not pan out, or do we hit the transfer portal because of the
34:05
transfer portal has you know? A lot of talent in it of guys
34:10
who have verified Heights and weights have verified game game
34:15
film for most of them, or at least college, practice film,
34:19
and these are guys that won't tie up a scholarship for five
34:23
years. If they don't pan out, these are
34:25
guys that you could tie the scholarship for 1 to 3 years.
34:29
And then when all of this maybe starts to normalize, then you go
34:33
back and you recruit back, fill that position, you back recruit
34:36
that number. so you know when you when you look at it through
34:41
out that way, if you are not a top of the board guy for most
34:46
schools, You run the risk, ran the risk of not having an
34:51
opportunity to play at the level you wanted to play at.
34:53
You may have to drop down a level, or you maybe didn't get a
34:56
chance to to sign with anybody yet.
34:59
Because even when you think of dropping down a level, some of
35:04
those schools, you know, Texas state is a great example, I know
35:08
they're not Regional test but they're a great example that
35:13
they looked at this year and said you know they kind of just
35:16
said screw it You know, zebra, we can we took another week,
35:20
Roots 0, they took 0 high school kids and only recruited the
35:24
transfer portal. But you know what that does also
35:27
for them? That that some people may not
35:30
even think of when they hear that, think that's ridiculous.
35:33
But what they did is they just postponed a year because you
35:37
know what we're looking at now, you know, looking at that with
35:40
2021 covid aside, you know, let's say covid ends today and
35:46
life goes by back normal and the Dead period ends and everything.
35:50
Cool, everything's good. The NCAA extended scholarship
35:56
limits for the 2021 season for players to hold over you know
36:00
seniors get a chance to play again down to freshman getting
36:02
their freshman year back. Okay, that's great.
36:06
So we extend that out, you know, theoretically you could have 25
36:09
senior scholarship seniors. Most people.
36:11
Don't you, theoretically could. Yeah.
36:14
What that gives, you 110 scholarships theoretically for
36:19
24 this year. But after this year, you have to
36:25
be at 85 scholarship starting next year.
36:28
How do you get there? You know, I talked to, I talked
36:32
to one of our, I talk to one of our guys in the industry today.
36:36
You know, one of our national guys were 24/7 Sports and he I
36:40
told him I said, you know, I think it's crazy.
36:43
The NCAA needs to do something, you know, in my opinion they
36:45
need to extend it not as far, but extended a little bit and I
36:51
was like, Virginia Tech for example, you know, I ran an
36:54
article two weeks ago, Virginia Tech has roughly eight
36:58
scholarships open right now for 2022.
37:01
Now, that will obviously expand. We all know that, that eight is
37:05
going to grow 1517, maybe even up to 20 with attrition and
37:09
transfer portal and things like that.
37:11
But just Today about 8 and he said, there are teams out there
37:18
right now that are - there are teams out there right now that
37:22
have to lose players on Scholarship today to sign anyone
37:27
in 2022. So you know, when we look at
37:31
this and we say, oh they signed 400 less people this year in
37:36
2021 due to covid and that's terrible.
37:41
I could see it exponentially larger in 2022 because College
37:46
college programs don't have the space.
37:49
Yeah, so what one of two things will have to happen.
37:52
You are going to have to see massive attrition and nobody
37:56
likes to talk about attrition attrition isn't always bad
38:00
players entering. The portal is not always bad.
38:03
I think, you know, Virginia Tech fans in particular especially
38:07
what has happened over the last few years and some of the guys
38:09
leaving think people leaving the transport transfer portal is a
38:13
major problem, but you have to look at it, multiple ways, some
38:17
people leave the transfer portal because they're unhappy some
38:21
people leave the transfer portal because they want more playing
38:23
time or better opportunity, some people leave the transfer
38:26
portal, early Levi, the transfer portal.
38:30
I was just simply because of academics or an off the field
38:33
issue. Some people will leave to be
38:36
closer to home some people. Decide, nobody really wants to
38:39
talk about are asked to leave the that people act like that,
38:45
don't happen, that happens. People are asked to leave your
38:48
scholarship, may not be retained.
38:50
If it is retained, you may not see the field, you may not play.
38:54
It may be worth it for you to find an opportunity elsewhere
38:58
and you know, a lot of That that happens everywhere.
39:01
Now you're going to add it on top of that, moving forward, the
39:05
scholarship number crunch that every school is dealing with.
39:09
We have to free up space somehow.
39:11
Yeah. You're gonna deal with the money
39:14
of it, you know. I heard you know every what does
39:18
it every 10? Scholarships, every 10
39:21
scholarships is roughly a million dollars.
39:24
So, you know, if you're carrying over a lot of scholarships here
39:27
carrying over a lot of money. So some schools are saying, hey,
39:32
we know the NCAA said you can carry over and go over 85 this
39:35
year, but we can't afford it, so we're not doing it.
39:38
So, you know, some of those players may have to find other
39:41
homes and then we're going to add the the Colossal mess that I
39:46
foresee coming of players entering the transfer portal
39:49
because we were a 2021 signee. We never saw the coaches.
39:54
Two-Face, we never step foot on campus, before we signed and we
39:58
hate it here. We're in a bad situation.
40:01
We're going to see that become very apparent and I think it'll
40:05
be very apparent very quickly. I wouldn't be surprised to see a
40:09
lot of freshmen, all over the country, start to enter the
40:11
portal after getting on campus and being there for a few
40:14
months. And realizing, you know, maybe
40:16
what I was sold in recruiting, isn't reality, you know?
40:21
Maybe, you know, I thought I was coming into Into this, you know,
40:25
great opportunity. You know I thought maybe I was
40:29
going to be a guy that had a shot at early playing time to
40:32
find out that I'm fourth team on the depth chart.
40:34
When I get here, maybe I'm a guy who never realized how small
40:40
this campus is, or how big this campus is, or how far away from
40:44
home. It is, you know, what do I do?
40:47
They, you know, and I have to live on campus for a year and
40:50
they tell me, I can't have a car and how do I, you know, how do I
40:53
do? It's typical.
40:54
College, you know, things and you have to learn and adjust
40:58
when you get there and I think we're going to see that fairly
41:03
quickly because unjustly the NCAA kind of force, the hand of
41:10
recruits to sign sight. Unseen for the majority of them
41:15
and I think a lot of colleges took advantage of that and said
41:17
hey if you don't sign with us or you don't commit to us now
41:20
you're not going to have a spot you know, nobody else other
41:23
schools. May not take you locking your
41:25
spot now and they may not be in love with the choice that they
41:29
made. So you know, all in all 2021 was
41:34
not beneficial for either the college staff for the recruits.
41:40
There was, there's a lot of risk on both sides and unfortunately
41:43
in 2022. I think that we are going to see
41:47
just more of the same and I think we're going to see more
41:50
players left out that either have to go drop down a level.
41:54
Maybe have to go prep school or Juco, or maybe you're out of
41:57
football together because the scholarship numbers are not
42:00
going to be available Nationwide.
42:02
We are combining the scholarship numbers being low with no Junior
42:05
tape and potentially limited. Even senior tape depending on
42:09
how the next few months start to shake out, you know, ahead of
42:13
signing day later this year. So it's definitely going to be a
42:17
big big problem. I feel like it's definitely hurt
42:21
the, those high school recruits the the Especially those ones
42:25
that need that they aren't in that top 400 like you were
42:28
talking about a need that Junior tape.
42:29
Need those camps need that senior tape.
42:33
Absolutely. If you, you know, looking at
42:36
like some of the guys that Virginia Tech has signed.
42:39
Obviously you have in the past, you guys like, you know, got
42:43
like a candle Fuller. He was obviously one of those
42:45
top 100 guys. He would be fine in this
42:48
situation, but look at guys like Reggie.
42:50
Floyd Greg Stroman. Both of those guys were great
42:53
play. Lady Camp to get their offers at
42:55
Virginia Tech. You know, you see a lot of
42:59
Christian dare, so he had to Camp, he wouldn't have been
43:02
okay, in this situation, you know, he was a lower ranked guy.
43:06
Silas, Dane the another one wouldn't have been okay in this
43:08
situation. So you have to look at it and
43:12
think, you know, while while you want to sign the majority of
43:17
your class to be highly ranked guys, and that top 400 you also
43:23
want to have me. Able to develop some of these
43:25
players and mind some of these players and find them at a camp
43:29
setting or in a, in a spring work out where you can go walk
43:32
through their their weight room and see, you know, how strong
43:36
are they, what are they doing? When they don't think you're
43:38
looking, how do they interact with their teammates?
43:42
What, you know, you can go into the high school and talk with
43:44
their guidance, counselor's, you can go talk with their teachers.
43:48
We don't have any of that right now, I mean, and going back to
43:52
kind of what we mentioned earlier with.
43:54
With Darryl Tapp kind of crazy to think that Darryl Tapp was a
43:57
good recruiter at Virginia Tech and never one step foot off
44:00
campus. I mean he wasn't able to, he
44:05
couldn't go into high school, she couldn't go into homes, he
44:07
couldn't do any of that. I think they only had two
44:10
official visit weekends and then maybe, you know, they had the
44:13
Midnight Madness and maybe a couple other Junior days on
44:17
campus. But other than that, that's the
44:20
staffs haven't seen recruits in almost a year.
44:24
You know, they haven't seen anybody in person in almost a
44:27
year and if this thing keeps continuing out, you know, it's
44:31
so much risk that I can see a lot of college coaches saying,
44:37
we need to, we need to over sign in the portal and under sign in
44:40
high school and we'll figure this out and get back to
44:43
recruiting high school. Once all of the numbers in the
44:45
money, shake out here in the next few years.
44:48
Yeah, let me ask you this. Evan, just strictly from The
44:52
Hokey perspective, do you think? Covid type recruiting was
44:55
positive and negative compared to other P5 schools based on
44:59
mean. On a lot of that information
45:00
that you've been giving us in the last few minutes here.
45:04
You know, I think, I think there are pros and cons, and that's
45:08
for every school, but I think for Virginia Tech in particular,
45:12
I think the Hokies do a very good job of early evaluations.
45:18
So, you know, that and and what what I mean by that is I think
45:22
that they have a way of evaluating kids in ninth and
45:26
tenth grade, and realizing these guys are going to be good.
45:29
Football players. Now they might They might be
45:34
100% right you know and think hey this guy's going to be a
45:37
good football player and every other school in the country
45:39
thinks the exact same thing and then that player becomes a good.
45:42
You know, for five star kid goes to Ohio, State goes to Alabama
45:46
whatever. But you know I think they are
45:49
really really good at that. I think Frank Beamer staff was
45:52
really good at it. I think Justin Fuente staff is
45:55
really good at it you know evaluating kids early getting
45:59
those relationships early and just cultivating those.
46:02
And you look at the Eyes that they signed, you know, in this,
46:06
especially in the state of Virginia.
46:08
A lot of them already had ties to the school via, you know,
46:14
maybe a brother friends that went there or being able to work
46:18
out at camps and kids, that Virginia Tech had seen in
46:21
person. Now maybe they haven't seen them
46:23
in person this year as a senior but they saw him in person at
46:27
some point in time during their career, they know and know the
46:30
coaches. Well they trust the coaches.
46:32
Well, the coaches In the trainers in the state.
46:35
And I think that they, you know, I think that this may have
46:39
forced their hand a little bit. I do think that last year the
46:43
20/20 year was an anomaly with in-state recruiting.
46:45
But I think that this forced Justin Fuente and his staff to
46:50
really sit down and say, Hey, you know, we can, we can exhaust
46:55
these resources in other states, but we need to exhaust our
46:58
resources in Virginia because we've seen these kids and some
47:02
other schools. Haven't we know what these kids
47:05
can be other schools may not and and you really need to build
47:12
that in-state recruiting. So I think they took advantage
47:16
of no fall football forever. You know, for the state of
47:19
Virginia, I think they took advantage of covid and got some
47:22
of these kids in state, to lock in a commitment, really early
47:25
and stay committed. Now on the other, you know, on
47:28
the downside of that well I'll say one other one other positive
47:31
is if they got these kids on campus This regardless of where
47:34
they came from. If you were on, if you visited
47:36
Virginia Tech before and then covid hits and you don't get a
47:39
chance to visit Clemson, you don't get a chance to visit Ohio
47:42
state Alabama, you can maybe be able to ride off of you.
47:48
Saw us in person. You know what, we have you
47:51
walked our campus, you know come come.
47:54
Come be a hokie as opposed to what you've seen virtually
47:58
elsewhere, you know another thing that I think Virginia Tech
48:03
Every school did I think we'll see moving forward is this fully
48:08
forced adaptation of Technology. You know virtual visits are
48:14
massive now you know and I think they only make sense you know
48:18
you know how many times we have you know written stories about
48:23
players that are planning to visit for a junior day or are
48:27
planning to visit for a summer visit or a fall game and their
48:31
ride falls through. Thing happens in the last
48:34
minute, and they can't make it to campus.
48:36
Those excuses. Can start getting smaller and
48:39
smaller now because you can say, hey, you didn't get to make it
48:42
up on Saturday. Here's a virtual visit.
48:44
We're going to do one on one for you and your family.
48:46
You never even have to leave your house.
48:48
Just give me an hour of your time, it's going to open that
48:50
door up to some more, some more things and showing off some more
48:55
aspects and you can control it a little bit more that way as
48:58
well. You know, if you know somebody
49:01
is really Did in the engineering department.
49:05
You can you can walk over and show them the ins and outs of
49:08
everything while they're sitting in their living room and you can
49:12
control, you know, hey, after that hears, you know, Main
49:16
Street because we know you're interested in all the places to
49:18
eat, and here's, you know, walking back into the facilities
49:22
and show them, you know, the new upgrades that have been made and
49:26
the construction that's going on.
49:27
You can control that a little bit more when you get, you know,
49:31
when you get a kid on campus, they come in, they take their
49:33
time. Tour they leave, they can kind
49:35
of do what they want, see what they want, and all of that, if
49:37
it's virtual you basically have the full control of the
49:40
narrative there and I think, you know, every school is adapting
49:44
to that. Well, I think Virginia Tech did
49:45
adapt to the virtual environment well over the last year.
49:49
Now, obviously, the cons are, you can't get kids on campus for
49:54
for, for Virginia Tech. On the brink Beamers.
49:56
Big thing was always get them on campus and you give yourself a
49:59
shot. And I think that's still true.
50:02
I think. Like I said earlier, I think
50:03
That there's something about Blacksburg and there's something
50:05
about Virginia Tech. I've been to a lot of campuses
50:08
covering football games and I think Virginia Tech ranks up
50:12
there with some of the nicest I've been to.
50:14
And I think if you can get there and you can, you can see
50:17
everything. You know, I do think that it's
50:19
one of those schools that kind of sticks out in your mind and
50:22
kids will remember it. So, I think that hurts obviously
50:27
not being able to get gets get recruits into Lane Stadium.
50:33
Walk through the tunnel here. Enter Sandman, you know, feel
50:37
the stadium Shake. I think that hurts Virginia Tech
50:39
a little bit and, you know, obviously not being able to have
50:44
your coach's face to face with anybody, you know, we've we've
50:48
talked about it, you know, guys like Justin Hamilton, they're
50:51
there. He's got a really, you know,
50:55
positive personality. You know, Ryan Smith has the
50:59
same atom, Lichtenberg just, you know, cutting that same mold.
51:03
And these guys are doing all they can over the phone, you
51:07
know, and over Skype and over FaceTime but you know as well as
51:11
I do it's not the same you know if you're not sitting
51:13
face-to-face with somebody, it's not the same.
51:17
So I think these are guys that you want to get out and give
51:19
them on the road and get them in front of in front of recruits as
51:22
soon as possible. So I think that did hurt.
51:24
Now, you know, I think the playing field was was fairly
51:28
even for everyone, you know, regardless some people got a
51:32
little bit of spring, A football, some people didn't
51:35
some got some high school, got to play in the fall, some states
51:38
played in the fall, some people didn't coaches weren't allowed
51:41
to get on the out on the road. So that was kind of a difference
51:44
and, you know, you don't have some senior football film to
51:49
review before signing day. So, you know, that's obviously a
51:52
con but in the whole scheme of things, I think this through a
51:56
wrench at every school in the country.
51:58
I think Virginia Tech adapted. Well, I think they shifted their
52:01
focus well to the Virginia guys. They thought they could get to
52:05
help build a foundation in the state and then utilize their
52:09
contacts outside of the state to sign some good football players.
52:12
And like I mentioned earlier if you're outside that top 400,
52:16
guys, going into the state of we're going into your senior
52:18
year with, as many kids didn't get to play their senior senior
52:22
year with zero summer camps. I take a lot of that.
52:26
Throw it out the window. You know, if you're a five-star
52:28
five-star, we all can see it. But if you're right, if you're a
52:33
Amid 3 star and a high three-star.
52:36
What's the difference? If you're a low forestall, if
52:39
you know you're a an 87 and a 90, you know, the difference
52:43
between a 3 star 4 star, there's really not that much difference.
52:47
When you think when you add in the fact that there was no camps
52:50
no spring workouts, and possibly know fall.
52:54
So, you know, I think Virginia Tech signed some good football
52:58
players in this class. The rankings won't necessarily
53:01
reflect it as well as I think it should.
53:04
But I do think they did well adapting in this environment
53:08
that was almost unable to be planned for.
53:12
Let's let's go ahead and pick you back straight off of that
53:14
because I feel like, you know, you hit hard on like, you know,
53:17
not having the lot of senior tape for these guys not having
53:21
really any of the Camp's. What guys, in this class, do you
53:25
think had the biggest potential for that kind of offseason
53:28
bumper that senior season bump? If we were operating business as
53:32
usual? You know, I think in in state
53:36
you know, I look at a guy like like a Jalen strowman I think
53:39
Jalen's strohman a very good football player and I think he
53:43
was really coming into his own as a junior, obviously he has
53:47
some advantages being Greg's little brother and and some of
53:50
the guys he works out with and trains with he's got really good
53:53
size range and speed. I think he probably would have
53:56
been in line for one Jalen Jones.
53:58
Another thousand yard receiver in at a Richmond now, Didn't
54:03
play the best competition in the world.
54:06
But if you can put together back-to-back thousand yard
54:09
receiving years, that's hard to deny.
54:11
You know, guys like that. I think Kelly Lawson probably
54:15
had the most upside. Yeah.
54:17
If Kelly Lawson could camp and had a senior year before signing
54:23
day, I would not be shocked if he was a four-star by some
54:26
rankings. I mean you look at what he's
54:29
done. You look at his first, you look
54:30
at his body and you think like, You know, he can play anything.
54:34
Is he? The next Tremaine?
54:36
Is he the next? Amari bar know, you know, we
54:38
don't really know right now, but you look at what he does in his
54:42
workouts you look at and you don't think he was clocked.
54:46
Was he clocked at 20? Please o'clock at 26 on one of
54:50
the, one of his training videos? It was it was Unreal, how fast
54:54
he was moving on. One of the, the treadmills that
54:57
clocks. It was it was it was it almost
55:00
the equivalent of a Caleb Farley.
55:03
Wow. And this guy's got a much
55:05
different type of body so you know, I think he's a guy that
55:10
would have probably gone up a little bit in the rankings.
55:13
You know, guy like DJ Harvey, I think DJ Harvey probably would
55:16
have played his way up, if California was playing football
55:19
in the in the fall, you know. I think You know, one guy I
55:24
think that was held down and I don't really know why because he
55:28
was super productive, but I think Kenji.
55:30
Christian is somebody that also was kind of a victim of rankings
55:35
where I feel like he's probably a four star talent.
55:39
I think he's a really good running back.
55:40
I think he maybe was overlooked a little bit because you're
55:45
coming from the state of Alabama and you don't have an Auburn
55:47
offer and you don't have an Alabama offer LSU LSU.
55:52
Maybe within hours of offering and before their restrictions
55:56
hit, you know, this is a guy that he's got, he's an SEC
55:59
player and you know, he luckily for Virginia Tech.
56:04
He didn't get, you know, those three SEC offers that would have
56:08
been a game-changer for moment. And now he's, he's headed to
56:12
Blacksburg. I think he's a guy that a lot of
56:14
people kind of Overlook, you know, I think Christian Moss is
56:18
an interesting one, you know, everybody talked about Trey
56:22
career, Portray Curry was committed, Virginia Tech for a
56:24
little while for Star Trek, hurry actually transferred to
56:27
North Cobb for his senior year, they played together him and
56:30
Christian Moss. Christian Moscow better wide
56:32
receiver. Christian Moss was was the top
56:36
guy at North Cobb and he's a, he's a mid three-star guy, he's
56:40
got great size, he's got really good range and he's just a guy
56:44
that fell through the covid cracks.
56:45
So, you know, I think when you look at it and you go through
56:49
each of these players, you know, every year I try to look at At
56:53
the commits, and I think who is, who's a reach?
56:56
Who's a guy that I can look at right now and say, I don't think
56:59
they're going to play in, Virginia Tech.
57:01
And when you look down their list right now, there's not a
57:04
lot of those guys. There are some guys who say
57:07
there's some guys, you say might take it might take a year or two
57:11
maybe three, maybe they won't play until their upperclassmen,
57:15
but there's not a whole lot. You look at and you say, I don't
57:18
see it, I don't know what they're seeing in the sky, I
57:20
don't see it at all. So, you know, I think when you
57:23
look at it that way, I think the Hokies, you know, I think they
57:25
did they did as well as I think that they probably could under
57:28
the circumstances of everything going around them covid and
57:33
potentially the hot seat of Justin Fuente.
57:36
Yeah. I mean you mentioned it right
57:39
there and something me and Brian had said probably back in the
57:42
fall was there were certain guys that were not going to get the
57:45
bump because they weren't going to get any extra exposure and it
57:48
sucked. But I got to be a realist as a
57:51
hokie fan here. We did get some really good
57:53
players but we had some misses who do you think we're that?
57:56
Like, one or two biggest mrs. Not only from, a recruiting
58:00
perspective in state or out of state, but just in general, if
58:03
they had gotten this guy, it would have been kind of that
58:05
Crown Jewel. In the class.
58:09
I mean, it has to be Demetrius Davis.
58:10
I mean their hands down. There's there's, you know,
58:14
nothing else. He was the guy and it's sad.
58:19
I mean he was he was locked in right.
58:23
Like he he was dead set on Virginia Tech and then when
58:28
covid happened and and, you know, Auburn used it as an
58:33
opportunity to get in there and and End up flipping them.
58:37
I mean, it was You could feel, you know, covering Virginia
58:42
Tech's class, you could feel everything shift that day.
58:46
You know, everyone started to be a little iffy and their
58:49
commitments and you could see that things were changing.
58:53
Now, I think, I think Virginia Tech did a good job going out
58:56
and securing a quarterback very quickly after and trying to
58:59
rebuild the class, but had they had, they signed Davis, you
59:06
know, I think he would have been the quarterback of the future.
59:09
And I think that he would have brought a lot of his friends
59:14
from Texas with him. And and you know, there's
59:16
there's a lot to be said when you sign a highly ranked
59:20
quarterback or we have a highly ranked quarterback committed, it
59:23
opens eyes to players across the country that may want to play.
59:27
That want me want to play for you because they want to play
59:29
with that guy. So you know, he has to be the
59:32
biggest Miss of the year for for Virginia Tech, when they lost
59:36
him to Auburn. Yeah, that one definitely was
59:41
was a big hit. It felt like the wind was out of
59:44
the sails a little bit therefore for the cycle I think Doug he's
59:47
in a pretty decent job of recovering but losing that
59:50
high-profile player you didn't get that forward momentum for
59:56
the rest of the cycle that you probably would have gotten if
59:58
he'd a stayed in the boat. I want to ask you this though,
1:00:02
of the guys in the 21 cycle you know you hit on it just a little
1:00:05
bit earlier but I just want to get a little bit more more
1:00:07
in-depth here. Any immediate impact guys, in
1:00:11
this 21 class, or most these guys going to need a year or two
1:00:15
to kind of marinate before they're ready to make a big
1:00:18
impact. Yeah, I think there's a few that
1:00:20
can play Early. Obviously, I mentioned DJ Harvey
1:00:22
earlier. I think he's probably an easy
1:00:24
one to look at and say he can probably work his way into the
1:00:28
rotation somewhere, you know. Will he be a starting Corner?
1:00:32
Probably not, but could he be a second team Corner?
1:00:35
Could it be a punt, returner guy like that, you know?
1:00:38
I think that he has an opportunity to get on the field
1:00:42
next year, you know, one that I look at that maybe was a little
1:00:47
overlooked in the recruiting process Dwayne Lofton.
1:00:51
I'm a big fan of Dwayne Lofton and I think he is what Virginia
1:00:56
Tech couldn't use right away in the slot especially if they want
1:01:00
to continue to be on Robinson playing outside.
1:01:03
You know Raheem Blackshear can play in the slot as well but I
1:01:06
think Duane lofton's one of those.
1:01:08
Guys from down in Texas that has just has big play potential
1:01:12
written all over him. I think he's a really, really
1:01:15
talented football player. I tell you.
1:01:17
I've heard a lot of positives about you say it suit out of
1:01:21
Virginia Beach, you know obviously I think he I think
1:01:23
he's probably a year way, you got to put on some weight to it
1:01:27
to play, linebacker the P5 level, but tireless, worker,
1:01:31
Great Frame, High football IQ. I think he's a guy that can
1:01:35
definitely play fairly early in his career.
1:01:39
You know, and I really, I'm a big fan of the of the DN stat
1:01:44
that Virginia Tech signed, I think Matthias, Carolyn Cole
1:01:47
Nelson, are going to be big time players for the Hokies in the
1:01:50
future? I'm not sure.
1:01:52
They'll get a whole lot of reps, your one, you know.
1:01:56
I think that they could be in that maybe a similar situation
1:01:59
like a Robert Wooten. They get some reps here and
1:02:01
there but maybe not a whole lot of them.
1:02:05
Maybe they stay under that four-game rule for the Redshirt
1:02:08
year. But I do think that in the
1:02:10
future, I think those are two big time players that Virginia
1:02:12
Tech guide on the d-line. And since we're talking about
1:02:18
some of the guys that are coming in, let's give it a little bit
1:02:21
to 22 here gained a commitment with Devin.
1:02:24
Pharaoh today, out of Atlanta, what type of player we getting
1:02:27
with them? I know it's still kind of early
1:02:28
in this one kind of came a little bit under the radar.
1:02:32
In terms of the, the announcement You know he's he's
1:02:37
a little bit playstyle like a Demetrius Davis.
1:02:41
He's not the biggest guy in the world between six foot.
1:02:44
Six one, but he's really, really slippery.
1:02:47
He's got a good, good arm. I won't say he's got a great
1:02:50
arm, he's got a good arm, you can make most of the throws.
1:02:53
You know, one thing I really like about him is when he when
1:02:57
something breaks down when he has to run, he keeps his eyes
1:03:01
up, he looks down the field for a played down field.
1:03:04
First As he's as he's running now, he'll talk, it'll go, I
1:03:09
mean, he's a guy, that's got some some some shiftiness and
1:03:12
he's got some speed, but he wants to make it a play with his
1:03:15
arm. And I think that's really, I
1:03:18
think that's a really positive trait for him.
1:03:20
He's also a dual sport guy, he's got baski got to basketball
1:03:23
scholarships and he is the starting point guard on the
1:03:28
number one team in the state, you know, on the basketball team
1:03:31
I think they were number ten nationally last year, and he was
1:03:35
A starting point guard. So he's really, really versatile
1:03:38
and he's just a really good athlete.
1:03:40
You know, I talked to you, I talked with his coaching staff
1:03:43
throughout the morning this morning and they, the the
1:03:47
biggest takeaways that I got from them is he's kind of a film
1:03:50
junkie. He's a guy that wants to get
1:03:53
better and wants to improve and he's not, you know, he's not one
1:03:56
of those guys that that's going to say, hey, I'm not going to
1:03:58
stay late break down this film, or I'm not going to go get those
1:04:01
extra reps. He's a guy that's going to be
1:04:04
first one in the building. Last one out, last one off the
1:04:07
field and just a guy that the team can kind of rally around.
1:04:10
So I think, I think it was a really good opening commitment
1:04:14
for the Hokies doesn't hurt that Virginia Tech has offered to of
1:04:17
his offensive linemen as well. So, you know, maybe maybe they
1:04:21
can do, I try to do a, maybe they can try to do a package
1:04:24
deal there, but, you know, he plays good good competition down
1:04:28
there and he's put up some numbers.
1:04:30
Yeah, you look at, you know, is he going to be A six foot four
1:04:37
240-pound quarterback, probably not.
1:04:40
But you know, he doesn't have to be, if he's, you know, 61 220.
1:04:45
I think he can be just fine. You know, I think he can run the
1:04:48
offense. Well, he looks like he can run
1:04:51
the RPO. Well, he can, he seems like he's
1:04:53
a quick decision maker, he's Above All Else, he's just a
1:04:56
really, really good athlete. So I think Virginia Tech did
1:05:00
well here now, you know, can they keep him if SEC school
1:05:04
start calling for him? I don't know.
1:05:05
But you know, for day one of his commitment, he's locked in a
1:05:10
really solid hearing a lot of good things about him and I
1:05:14
think he's fired up to be a hokie and the Virginia Tech
1:05:17
staff is really excited to happen.
1:05:19
It's good to hear also like what you talked about, he said it was
1:05:21
all state point guard. Anytime I think about a point
1:05:24
guard in basketball, it's an immediate leader, understanding
1:05:28
distribution understanding, getting people in the right
1:05:30
spots. So maybe that athlete can go off
1:05:34
the end, he can strictly be a quarterback, but Evan also want
1:05:37
to ask for this cycle. Give us a couple names.
1:05:41
It was a couple key targets that the make this seemingly a
1:05:46
successful class the Hokies need to Oh, Land.
1:05:51
Yeah, you know, I think, I think, Virginia Tech needs to
1:05:53
focus completely in the state of Virginia.
1:05:56
First, there's a lot of talent in the state of Virginia right
1:05:59
now. You know, you can look at guys,
1:06:02
like obviously, there's Gunner Givens at a lord Bata top.
1:06:05
One of the top tackles in the country, Virginia.
1:06:08
Tech is definitely in the mix for him.
1:06:10
You know, you got guys, like George Pettaway Ramon Brown in
1:06:13
the state of Virginia. I think those guys are both at
1:06:17
least speaking with Virginia Tech and have some Of interest
1:06:21
in them, you know, you look at guys like Isaiah Montgomery out
1:06:25
of adult Landstown. He's a guy that's a moderately
1:06:28
ranked guy, but I think he's a big-time offensive tackle, but,
1:06:32
you know, really looking at his is possible projection at the
1:06:36
next level. I think he's got a lot of
1:06:37
talent. You know, Bryson Jennings dad
1:06:41
played at Virginia Tech played with JC price.
1:06:44
I think you don't want to overlook that connection, he's a
1:06:46
four-star guy, out of Clover Hill, you know, Richard Purnell,
1:06:50
and Other one of the guys from Highland Springs, Kyrie moist
1:06:53
in. You can get him out of King's
1:06:54
Fork. I think Virginia Tech can
1:06:56
actually do really well in the state of Virginia next year, you
1:07:00
know, I think I forgot Sherrod, Koval and Tyler Banks.
1:07:03
I like both of them for the Hokies.
1:07:05
They both have ties. Both seem to really like the
1:07:07
Virginia Tech defense and both are really, really talented
1:07:11
football players. So, you know, I think I think
1:07:15
Virginia Tech really should take you.
1:07:18
No, take the 2021. That they set in the state of
1:07:21
Virginia, try to build upon that and really try to take advantage
1:07:25
of then up here in talent in 2021 and try to rebuild that
1:07:30
roster with Virginia, guys. Virginia Tech has always been at
1:07:33
their best when the roster is littered with those guys that
1:07:36
are homegrown. So I think they should continue
1:07:38
to try and mind this in-state Talent.
1:07:41
Absolutely, let me ask this. We discussed it on last week's
1:07:44
episode. How big do you think it was
1:07:48
getting the preferred walk-on? Offers two guys like Jabari,
1:07:52
Parker the kid out of Deep Run, the kid out of Manchester here
1:07:56
in the RV. A, how big is that?
1:07:59
That some of those kids had legitimate?
1:08:02
You know, FCS FBS offers and our staff.
1:08:06
Convince them to say no walk on here.
1:08:10
How big is that it building the inroads in state?
1:08:14
You know, I think, first and foremost, that do a lot of those
1:08:17
guys are going to be guys that I can see are in Scholarships in
1:08:20
the future. I think those are good football
1:08:21
players, but additionally, those guys are guys from within the
1:08:28
state of Virginia that you need to have building connections.
1:08:33
You know, you can get a walk-on from Highland Springs that
1:08:35
cannot hurt you. That can only help you, you
1:08:38
know, a lot of a lot of recruiting that's not done by
1:08:43
the coaching staff is done by Players is done by the recruits.
1:08:46
If you can keep some guys happy and you can you know, you can
1:08:50
have them recruit their friends to come join you in Blacksburg,
1:08:54
you know, that can only help, I think, Virginia Tech.
1:08:57
And I could do, I could do hours on the Virginia Tech and and why
1:09:01
they need to be sent why they need to get back into Highland
1:09:04
Springs VA could do hours on that.
1:09:06
But, you know, that's a school. You have to get in on.
1:09:09
That's a school that has everything.
1:09:11
Going your way to be able to build a pipeline.
1:09:14
And then they just aren't doing it.
1:09:16
So, you know, being able to get, you know, guy like Jabari Parker
1:09:19
can not hurt, can they? You know, do they want to follow
1:09:23
that up and and pick up Rashad Purnell in the next year's
1:09:26
class? He's already high on the Hokies.
1:09:28
Do you take him as a defensive lineman and continue to build
1:09:33
that connection? Obviously, you know, the
1:09:36
Highland Spring staff has ties to Virginia Tech through and
1:09:39
through adding JC price in there.
1:09:41
I mean he's got more ties to the housings for App as well.
1:09:45
So it has to be replaced. They have to be able to break
1:09:48
into that school to continue to try and be successful.
1:09:52
I think that's one of the best schools in the state.
1:09:55
Might be one of the best talent producing schools in the
1:09:57
country, and Virginia Tech are really at the end of the day,
1:09:59
they need to get it done at Highland Springs.
1:10:02
And I think, you know, Jabari Parker can be a can be a help in
1:10:05
a step in the right direction. They're awesome.
1:10:09
I like that. So every we're going to close
1:10:12
out with kind of a fun question here for you.
1:10:14
So A couple weeks ago, we had ta let us know.
1:10:19
They're bringing back college football, makes a new game.
1:10:22
It's coming out sometime in the next few years.
1:10:24
What is one thing that wasn't an NCAA 14?
1:10:28
That has to be in the new game? Ooh, I don't even know.
1:10:33
It was in NCAA 14 because I didn't even I didn't have it.
1:10:37
Then, I know back when I was like in high school and playing
1:10:41
it, you would you could have like your Dynasty mode and you
1:10:44
could do your recruiting and things like that.
1:10:46
I'm going to say, they need to put the transfer portal in.
1:10:49
Okay. You know, you gotta have a way
1:10:51
to open up some scholarships and I mean, I might be Cutthroat
1:10:54
there. If you're my third string
1:10:55
punter, you're gone. I'm trying to find somebody
1:10:57
else. So you know, if I can be
1:11:00
ruthless and be cut. Good transfer portal.
1:11:02
I'm all-in. So yeah that's sort of transfer
1:11:04
portal in there. Evan Wolfson option where you
1:11:07
have three ways to kick a guy off your team?
1:11:10
I'm cutting you because you're not a good player.
1:11:12
You had a DUI charge or something like that or if a
1:11:16
great opinion portal. Yeah, no, no, no matter, no
1:11:21
matter what, I want to be able to, I want to, I want to be
1:11:23
single point of failure, where I can go in and say, you know what
1:11:26
I'm done. Yeah, I'm done with you.
1:11:27
You're out Balsam. That is awesome.
1:11:32
Well Evan we really appreciate you joining else here today in
1:11:39
you know going through all these things and talking about it.
1:11:41
You know we follow you on Twitter.
1:11:45
Again we really appreciate you joining us and that's going to
1:11:48
wrap up this episode of The Boundary Corner podcast.
1:11:52
I'm Curtis Wilson. I'm Brian Sigler.
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Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to the podcast on
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your favorite Source, including Spotify Amazon in out.
1:12:01
A podcast is always without our buddy.
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Jason Long play us out, catch him on Spotify and apple music.
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We thank you for listening. And as always, let's go Hokies