4 year data on ACC recruiting classes

[Edisto_Tiger]

Without a Quarterback???

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We gots QB's, like we gots WR's. No biggie. Plug and play.

 

[Cobrabit]

I'll agree that we could use better recruiters and hope that comes to fruition.

Yes, there are people that can recruit without winning. They're selling 'something' or cheating. UCLA has LA and do you really expect us to pull California recruits to Blacksburg?

Miss St., aTM, Ark, SC, Mizzou have the SEC to sell. While the last few years have been a boon for the ACC, the previous decade was all SEC and recruits flocked to any SEC school (maybe not Vandy due to academics). They're consistently on TV and scouts attending SEC games to get noticed for the NFL.

aTm and TCU are in Texas which is a recruiting hotbed. Yes, there are several schools recruiting Texas, but the shear number of talented players in Texas all but guarantee that the 'leftovers' are still highly ranked.

Louisville's coach has always been a good recruiter and a good coach with a high powered offense.


I'll disagree that a good recruiter could've overcome the offensive play we had the last decade plus. The game shifted to the spread and we were still running power (with OL that were TEs in high school). Yes, we got a few studs here or there, but you're not going to pull in the 5 star recruits by the bunches with that type of offense in today's game without something else to sell (traditional power or off field attractions).

While I would love to see VT recruit with the best of them, I'm realistic and know we currently don't have anything to sell. The only way around that is winning with what we've got and continue to play a style of game that produces numbers because many of these top recruits want to go to the NFL and know that having a high stat line is going to get them noticed, especially at a school located in Blacksburg that hasn't won a NC.

 

[Hook'Em0608]

I disagree. Beamer's style of play hurt us on the offensive side of the ball, but a decent recruiter could overcome that. We signed Darren Evans, Ryan Williams, and David Wilson, 3 NFL calibre RBs when our offense was a joke. in the 2004-2009 span we had quite a few NFL WRs, and the second best QB in school history. Let's not confuse the ability to get talent with how to handle it. Our Offensive coaching staff was terrible, but that isn't indicative of our ability to recruit.

There are coaches who are great X and O guys, and coaches that can recruit. Which is why there are the occasions where Bud Foster can embarrass Urban Meyer in a game, but CUM can ride that talent discrepancy to a Natty.

We've not had good recruiters on our staff for as long as I've followed VT, and is one of my main beefs with Fuente. He seems to be a good coach, but he needs to augment his staff with recruiting closers to take us to the next level.

'Winning cures all' is BS. There are plenty of coaches who can recruit without winning.

Mississippi St recruits at a high level and their program is trash.
Texas A&M has had like 2 10 win seasons since the 80s and they recruit at a much higher level than Tech
UCLA, UNC, TCU, Michigan St, Arkansas, South Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, Louisville....Tell me why ANY of these teams should be out-recruiting us

I don't think most of those schools are out recruiting you in a consistent basis. I can explain a couple of them though. Texas A&M is an hour from Houston and 3 hours from DFW. UCLA is in LA. If anything, those two have historically underachieved despite their access to talent. Recruiting has a lot to do with geography for the vast majority of programs.

 

[ckhokie]

I don't think most of those schools are out recruiting you in a consistent basis. I can explain a couple of them though. Texas A&M is an hour from Houston and 3 hours from DFW. UCLA is in LA. If anything, those two have historically underachieved despite their access to talent. Recruiting has a lot to do with geography for the vast majority of programs.

I think you'd be very surprised if you looked at recruiting classes in the 20-35 range. Those programs are right near, or ahead of us on an annual basis.

I get geography has a lot to do with it, and A&M and UCLA are good examples of that, but the Tidewater area of VA, NC, SC, DC, and GA are all close to VT. There is quite a bit of elite talent within 6 hrs of Blackburg.

The idea of 'selling SEC' at Arkansas, South Carolina, or Mizzou is a poor excuse too. Those are trash programs who haven't won anything, and don't have a prospect of winning anything.

 

[ckhokie]

While I would love to see VT recruit with the best of them, I'm realistic and know we currently don't have anything to sell.

How in the hell can you say that?

We don't have anything to sell? Great academics, a strong conference, a winning program, rabid fanbase, a winning program, top of the line facilities, a history of NFL picks...

The only thing that isn't on that list is a National Championship, and there are really only like 8 programs who can lean on those, and they're recruiting at a higher level than we are anyway.

There aren't more than 15-20 programs that can sell what we can top to bottom.

 

[Hook'Em0608]

I think you'd be very surprised if you looked at recruiting classes in the 20-35 range. Those programs are right near, or ahead of us on an annual basis.

I get geography has a lot to do with it, and A&M and UCLA are good examples of that, but the Tidewater area of VA, NC, SC, DC, and GA are all close to VT. There is quite a bit of elite talent within 6 hrs of Blackburg.

The idea of 'selling SEC' at Arkansas, South Carolina, or Mizzou is a poor excuse too. Those are trash programs who haven't won anything, and don't have a prospect of winning anything.

All those programs have home grown talent bases that produce elite talent too though. Not enough to fill up an entire class, but a handful of difference maker prospects each year well within a few hours drive of the school. I think VT does alright when they are good. You guys fell off a bit in the final years of Beamer and your recruiting paid for it. I bet you guys are back to consistently getting top 25 classes soon. You just need another nice 10 or 11 win season and I bet things get back to normal. Or I could be wrong, I don't know.

 

[ckhokie]

I bet you guys are back to consistently getting top 25 classes soon. You just need another nice 10 or 11 win season and I bet things get back to normal. Or I could be wrong, I don't know.

That's the hope. I'm just disappointed we didn't bring in a proven recruiter. Much of Fuente's staff are the guys who came with him from Memphis, who don't really have P5 experience

 

[Deep Creek]

We were the winningest program over a 20 year stretch not too long ago.
Were in a National Championship
We've got like a 28 year bowl streak
Went to like 6 BCS bowls
We won 10+ 8 straight years
We'er like top 10 with putting players in the NFL over the last 15 years
Won our conference 4 times in 6 years
We have crazy nice facilities and a solid fanbase


We've got something to recruit. We just have coaches (old staff and current) that aren't good recruiters.

True, coaches probably could do better and Virginia is nice country. But, the fact remains VT still doesn't have the same notariety of USC, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etal. Just or unjust, that is just the way it is.

If a 5* kid just wanted a great place to go to school with a nice climate and didn't give a damn about the next level, they'd probably pick San Diego or Hawaii.

 

[Deep Creek]

UCLA, UNC, TCU, Michigan St, Arkansas, South Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, Louisville....Tell me why ANY of these teams should be out-recruiting us

Some of those may be outrecruiting you guys but they still aren't in the league with the blue bloods IMHO.

According to Rivals, you guys are currently 14th for the class of '18, rbehnd UCLA/A&M and just ahead of Miss State and TCU. GIven things will change but that ain't bad right now.

 

[Deep Creek]

If anything, those two have historically underachieved despite their access to talent.

 

[NolePride]

You gotta know what you're doing on the field, but w/o players you'll
have issues.

Look at W. Mich last year. (And look at them compared to their opponents)
They go unbeaten. Well-Coached. BUT at the same time they had 34 3-star
players on their roster. No other MAC team had as many as 20.

Plus their two wins vs the Big10...Northwestern and Illinois, those teams did
not dwarf them in talent. Illinois had 48 3 -stars and 2 4's on the roster
and Northwestern had 54 3's and 5 4's. They edged past Northwestern
and whipped the Iliini.

You gotta be able to Coach and you gotta be able to recruit. They go hand-in-hand.
It's a helluva lot easier doing both in Florida than anywhere else in the Country.
The State's got 400 Div 1 athletes graduating from HS, yearly. With a 25 player
limit, the Big 3 can only get 75 of them. There is no excuse for the other 4 Div 1
teams in the state not to be competitive. (I understand a lot o talent leaves the
State, but there are still kids that want to stay in-state)

Not trying to put a jinx on Oregon, but the book is still out on Taggart.
Taggert overwhelmed the AAC in talent with 54 3's and 4 4's. Yet, he
still got whipped by Temple. Just a hunch and a guess...(a bit educated of
a guess) but don't expect miracles from him. He needs to have
superior talent over his opponents to win. Honestly, I kinda think Oregon
would have been better served by bringing Scott Frost back home from UCF.
That guy came into Orlando, took what UCF had from an 0-12 team and went to
a bowl in his first year. That guy can coach.

 

[NolePride]

Here's the rest of the Power 5 leagues and the number of elite players
recruited between 2014-2017.

Big10
Ohio St 64
Michigan 48
Penn St 34
Mich St 24
Nebraska 20
Maryland 18
Wisconsin 17
Iowa 5
Northwestern 5
Illinois 5
Rutgers 4
Minnesota 3
Indiana 2
Purdue 1

Big12

Oklahoma 60
Texas 40
Baylor 17
TCU 11
W Va 10
Okie St 10
Tx Tech 7
K-State 5
Iowa St 2
Kansas 2

PAC12

USC 61
UCLA 42
Stanford 33
Oregon 27
Az St 23
Wash 22
Cal 14
Ariz 10
Utah 9
Colo 5
Oreg St 4
Wash St 4 (That guy can coach)

 

[outofyourmind]

"Do you think that great players just fall out of the sky and land in Norman Oklahoma??"
"NO, you have to go get them"

Signed,
Barry Switzer

 

[Deep Creek]

Taggert overwhelmed the AAC in talent with 54 3's and 4 4's. Yet, he still got whipped by Temple.

Just curious. How do you think Rhule will do at Baylor? For the life of me I can't figure out why he chose THAT job. He had some damned good offers at other P5 schools from what I understand. Yet he chose the train wreck that is Baylor!

 

[Deep Creek]

"Do you think that great players just fall out of the sky and land in Norman Oklahoma??"
"NO, you have to go get them"

Signed,
Barry Switzer

They don't drop out of the sky to Ames, Iowa either. And when you "go get them" I think it is a lot easier to convince them to go to Norman, OK when you are offering the OU football tradition versus the Iowa State football tradition! j/s

 

[NolePride]

They don't drop out of the sky to Ames, Iowa either. And when you "go get them" I think it is a lot easier to convince them to go to Norman, OK when you are offering the OU football tradition versus the Iowa State football tradition! j/s

You know, you have just made a great, great point as to why the Playoff system basically bans
the mid-majors.

The teams in the bottom half of each of the Power 5 Leagues would suffer a devastating
blow to recruiting if there was a Playoff System that included the Conf Champs from all
the FBS leagues and provided for no "at-large" berths.

Let's say you are a 3-star player being recruited by Syracuse, Oregon State, Iowa State,
Kansas and Appy State. Now, if you wanted to one day participate in the Playoffs, what
school would give you your best opportunity to achieve that. The answer is pretty simple...
Appy State.

That's why the push for controlling "perception." The teams in the bottom tier would
lose whatever 3-stars they were getting to good mid-majors and thus their programs would
sink even farther down.

It's also a reason why the Power 5 leagues would fight any attempt by the NCAA to form
a 2nd level of FBS football. (For the same reason)

 

[Deep Creek]

You know, you have just made a great, great point as to why the Playoff system basically bans the mid-majors.

I just created a thread for this topic.

 

[xpuctaqpGT]

As a GT fan, we've had 1 (ONE!) top 25 recruiting class in the last 20 years. Chan Gailey got one class ranked #17 while he was there. Otherwise, our classes tend to be in the 35-55 range. With some much worse. On balance I would say that we have over-achieved with the talent we have. But we're probably never going to be an elite team.

 

[Deep Creek]

The teams in the bottom half of each of the Power 5 Leagues would suffer a devastating
blow to recruiting if there was a Playoff System that included the Conf Champs from all
the FBS leagues and provided for no "at-large" berths.

Curious. How frequently do you think that bottom half of each P5 will place a team in the CFP?

 

[outofyourmind]

They don't drop out of the sky to Ames, Iowa either. And when you "go get them" I think it is a lot easier to convince them to go to Norman, OK when you are offering the OU football tradition versus the Iowa State football tradition! j/s

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