Well 5 star RB Ford chose Penn State
- Thread starter BigDaddyHokie
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Go look up the stat. We ran the ball more than PSU did last year. and the carries were split about 3/4 Barkley 1/4 McSorely. So with that, if your not the number one what are you going to get there?
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Not sure why we can't land the top kids from in-state. With 2 players taken in the 1st round of the draft, a more progressive offense than in the past, new practice and locker facilities and Bud Foster, Fuentes has a lot to offer recruits to keep them from going off to places a long way from home where they'll get lost in the shuffle.
?? I would hope a 5 star RB has enough confidence in himself to think he just might be the #1 RB at some point. Do you not think PSU talked about Barkley and used him as an example when recruiting him? What could we say to counter that? Travon had the most RB carries for us last year with 104. That comes out to 8 a game. 8! Barkley had 199 carries, 47 receptions, and was a Heisman candidate last year, and the previous year he had 272 carries for nearly 1500 yards. I'm not sure what else you would need to see, and I stand by my comment saying I cannot blame Ford, and asking why would a star RB want to come here and get less than 10 carries a game?
James Franklin also did a good job with Zac Stacy at Vanderbilt. A 5'8, 189lb 3star recruit that rushed for over 3,000 yards, broke a bunch of Vandy records, was the 3rd leading rusher in the SEC in 2013 and ended up being drafted.
I'm not faulting CJF or his system but at the end of the day he's never had a 1,000 yrd rusher and at VT he's never established a premier RB. Whether it's necessity or design, the QB at VT has statistically dominated the rushing.
That, the PSU players from VA in his ear and Franklin's pitch of being the first black coach to win a National Championship probably all weighed heavily in Ford's decision.
I'm not faulting CJF or his system but at the end of the day he's never had a 1,000 yrd rusher and at VT he's never established a premier RB. Whether it's necessity or design, the QB at VT has statistically dominated the rushing.
That, the PSU players from VA in his ear and Franklin's pitch of being the first black coach to win a National Championship probably all weighed heavily in Ford's decision.
OK, Fuente doesn't focus his offense on the running game but he hasn't had a Ryan Williams or David Wilson to work with either. Ford could have made a huge difference here but he chose to go Pa State as did Ricky Slade from a year ago so he'll sit on the bench.. And just this week, Brandon Smith, a 5* recruit from Louisa committed to Pa State. Apparently Tech was never even in the game for signing him. WTF? This kid was a stud two years ago but Tech didn't recruit him until last year. The only place colder than Blacksburg in the winter is Happy Valley and I don't see Franklin making the playoffs much less NC. We need to step up our recruiting to keep these kids home.
Fuente has not had a Williams or Wilson to work with here because they don't want to come here and get less than 10 carries a game. We landed Williams and Wilson because we ran the ball more then, and they knew they would get a lot of carries. We also had a more recent history of RBs (Jones, Suggs, Ore, Evans) with good numbers when we got them, and were more focused on recruiting the state of Va. then.
Now, our offense is pass heavy, we don't have a featured RB who will get a lot of carries, and we don't focus on the state of Va. like we used to. Add it all up and we don't have a chance to land a guy like Ford.
Now, our offense is pass heavy, we don't have a featured RB who will get a lot of carries, and we don't focus on the state of Va. like we used to. Add it all up and we don't have a chance to land a guy like Ford.
We just aren't going to be the same offense as we have been. If you look at the Memphis stats and the direction of recruiting you can see the writing on the wall. Not that it's a bad thing just one that Hokie fans are going to have to get used to. Losing a kid like Ford would have been devastating under Beamer. Not so much now.
Maybe but you got to expect it some years. Not only does VT have to recruit against the Bama's, Ohio states, Clemsons and FSUs of the college world for Virginia kids but now you got Franklin at PSU, Beatty at Maryland, Cutcliffe at Duke and NCST on a upswing. It's not going to be as easy as it once was.
Also, we do not have the contacts and relationships with the Va. high schools that we used to have. Some of the high school coaches are more familiar with the out of state schools coaches than ours.
I like instate talent as well as the next person but we've had just as many out of state recruits excel. At the end of the day I would rather have a system in place and a coach recruiting nationwide for the best fit than a roster of local talent which the offense has to be changed around to utilize. I think we're going to be ok.
Per the 10 carries per game, we haven't had a RB separate from the rest in a while. McMillan, started to get more carries but he often fumbled when he was in double digit numbers. I would spread it around also. I would also give all my QBs some time in the game to season them for when the starter gets hurt.
At Memphis CJF spread the rushing out to over 12 players every year with at least 5 getting significant carries (over 25 attempts) even the year when Henderson almost broke 1,000 yards the rushing attempts were spread out and the QB was usually one of the top rushers, even Paxton Lynch. With what I've seen thus far and the way we are recruiting duel threat QBs, WRs and APBs, I tend to think this is our offense. I'm fine with it.
It's really a chicken or the egg kind of situation.
We can't land a top-flight RB, so we don't necessarily have someone obviously more talented than the rest to demand more carries. Our offense spreads the ball around in the backfield and as long as we don't have a true bell cow, that's exactly how it will be.
Since we don't have anyone who is head and shoulders above the rest, we're not going to feature any one back. That's going to put us at a recruiting disadvantage against the likes of schools who trot out 1,000 yard rusher after 1,000 rusher.
PSU showing off a two-year highlight tape of Saquan should really be no surprise. Kids wanting to be the next Saquan should also be absolutely no surprise. Lastly, I don't believe we've ever recruited a single kid from Louisiana - why would one 5* suddenly be the one to change that?
We can't land a top-flight RB, so we don't necessarily have someone obviously more talented than the rest to demand more carries. Our offense spreads the ball around in the backfield and as long as we don't have a true bell cow, that's exactly how it will be.
Since we don't have anyone who is head and shoulders above the rest, we're not going to feature any one back. That's going to put us at a recruiting disadvantage against the likes of schools who trot out 1,000 yard rusher after 1,000 rusher.
PSU showing off a two-year highlight tape of Saquan should really be no surprise. Kids wanting to be the next Saquan should also be absolutely no surprise. Lastly, I don't believe we've ever recruited a single kid from Louisiana - why would one 5* suddenly be the one to change that?
That's because he is from Louisa,Va, a small town about 40 miles from Richmond.
Yeah Louisa, VA where all kids should aspire to go to Tech or France before they go out of state.
It bothers me more losing instate defensive players. I can kinda see RB being a question mark at VT but not any position in the defense. Buds shown he's not going anywhere, the defense is always a priority and the coaches have shown that they can develop players and get them to the league.
That's what really irks me as well. No defensive talent that VT wants should leave the state unless they have strong family ties elsewhere. Offensively, any RB worth his accolades should be clamoring to come to Fuente's offense with the mission to force JF into making them the RB bell cow.
We need to beat the Clemsons, FSUs, Bamas etc before kids will take notice. Its possible but not easy. Our kids need to be coached-up a whole lot.
I hear ya BigDaddy, but I gotta believe that at least 2 of the top 5 VA recruits each year can see the trend AND be invigorated to be part of the plan to beat those Clemsons, Bamas, FSUs, etc... The sell shouldn't be so seemingly difficult to get those top VA recruits consistently coming to VT.
One thing that hurts us (for a few kids) is that kids that don't qualify academically for ACC schools can go to a SEC team no problem.
For example, some years ago, 6'7" 325 lb. OT Bob Massie from Lynchburg grew up a VT fan, hung out at VT a lot, and verballed to VT, but had to go to prep school to bring up his grades. Even after a prep year he couldn't get in to VT so he went to Ol' Miss and played and then went pro and I believe is still a pro.
For example, some years ago, 6'7" 325 lb. OT Bob Massie from Lynchburg grew up a VT fan, hung out at VT a lot, and verballed to VT, but had to go to prep school to bring up his grades. Even after a prep year he couldn't get in to VT so he went to Ol' Miss and played and then went pro and I believe is still a pro.
I saw where some 4 or 5 star DL committed to UVA, rejecting offers from Alabama and several other Power 5 schools who are actually good at football. I believe in addition to DL, DA should be placed beside his name also.
Any recruit who saw the Hoo's give up in the 2nd half of their bowl game against Navy would never dream of going there.
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