Tech Football Coaches Busy in July

Tech Football Coaches Busy in July

Despite the general perception that the summer
months are the offseason for the Virginia Tech football program, that couldn’t
be farther from the truth. The Tech coaching staff has been hard at work over
the past week welcoming members of the 2005 recruiting class, as well as looking
for possible members of the class of 2006.

The month of July is very busy, and the coaches
will have very little time between July activities and the beginning of practice
in August.

Last Tuesday, members of the 2005 recruiting
class began to report to Blacksburg, beginning with those who chose to enroll
for classes in Summer Session II. Many of the players who enrolled in this
session see an opportunity to see the field early for the Hokies and decided to
come in and get a head start on other members of their recruiting class. Players
like Victor “Macho” Harris and Cam Martin may be called upon to play key
roles for Tech this fall, and an extra month of strength and conditioning will
only help them.

New NCAA rules which permit schools to pay for
the summer classes of incoming recruits were certainly helpful in getting so
many players in Blacksburg this early in the summer. Previously, true freshmen
who enrolled early had to pay their own way through summer sessions.

This past Saturday, Virginia Tech’s one-day
individual camp for rising seniors was very important in helping the Tech
coaching staff evaluate potential recruits for scholarship offers. The staff has
a list of many players that are under consideration for scholarship offers, and
seeing certain players in person in events such as Saturday’s camp can go a
long way in determining which players get offered.

And we saw exactly that this past weekend, with several prospects
that we haven’t even seen mentioned before getting scholarship offers. A few
kids, after seeing the campus and facilities, either committed to the Hokies
before leaving, or leave the impression that they will commit in the very near
future. As of this writing, new commitments from wide receiver Jacob
Sykes, defensive end Mike
Gee, and DT/OL Darryl
Robertson had been confirmed, with at least one more
possible. For more information, subscribe to TSLPass and get up-to-date
information from TSL recruiting analyst Chris Horne.

The coaching staff will get to evaluate even more
players during Tech’s team camp, which is currently taking place from July
10-12. High school coaches bring many members of their team to this camp, so the
coaching staff has a chance to evaluate rising juniors and sophomores, as well
as even more rising seniors.

Always the special teams school, Virginia Tech
will hold a kicking camp on July 14-15. Frank Beamer always likes to have a
number of kickers on his roster, and this camp gives him a chance to evaluate
more players.

These camps also serve another purpose. They get
Virginia Tech even more recognition in high schools of the ACC region. Imagine a
16 year old who has never set foot on the campus of a major college. He comes to
Blacksburg for the team camp, and is blown away by the facilities, campus, and
the ever growing Lane Stadium. He goes back to wherever he is from, and tells
his friends about what an awesome time it was. The word gets spread. That will
happen more and more, especially as Tech’s facilities continue to improve and
the program continues to settle into the ACC.

Virginia Tech will also hold their Men’s
Fantasy Football Camp this coming weekend, July 15-17. While this camp doesn’t
give the coaches a chance to evaluate potential recruits (apparently Will
Stewart wasn’t impressive enough to garner an offer last year, despite having
four full years of eligibility and "wanting to hit someone"), it does
give a couple dozen lucky fans the chance to get to know the coaching staff, and
learn some things about football that they probably didn’t know.

Every year in late July, each conference and
their respective media gather at a predetermined site to celebrate the imminent
beginning of football season. Many articles are written in newspapers around the
region and the country, as sports writers get to know players and coaches and
capture their thoughts on the upcoming season.

This year, the ACC will have their Football
Kickoff at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, VA, from Sunday, July 24th to
Tuesday, July 26th. The Virginia Tech coaching staff has got to be loving this
setup, especially when compared to their days in the Big East. In the Big East,
the head coaches, a couple of players from each team, and the media would gather
in the lovely hamlet of The Meadowlands in New Jersey, at Giants Stadium. The
event would last about half a day, a day at best. Travel to New Jersey for a
partial day of work, talk to the media on the artificial turf, then travel back
to Blacksburg that evening. This year the VT staff will be able to rent a car,
travel an hour or so up I-81 North, and spend a few days at a nice resort.

I believe that’s reason #21,857 of why it’s
great to be in the ACC.

After the ACC Football Kickoff, there will be
very little time until the season starts. Practice begins for the Hokies on
August 5.