Friday Q&A: January 31, 2014

1) Has there been a downward trend in VT football recruiting, or did we just have two really bad classes in 2010 and 2011?

Chris Coleman: Most of Tech’s recruiting classes look about the same on paper.  Maybe one class might have a couple of more four-star players than another, or another might have more players overall, but on the whole, they all look about the same.

It’s human nature for people to get really excited about individual recruits, but from doing this job for the better part of a decade, I’ve gotten immune to it.  I was really excited about Zack McCray, Elan Lewis, Donaldven Manning, Jarontay Jones, Kris Harley, Aaron Brown, William Wall, Ike Whitaker, Andrew Bowman, Kent Hicks and some other guys.  They were all 4-star recruits, and the were all flops for various reasons.

I was a history major, and one thing I’ve learned from studying history is that you should study the past to make sure you don’t screw up again in the same way in the future.  Tech screwed up in the past by not recruiting enough offensive linemen, and by recruiting a bunch of wide receivers who had never actually played wide receiver.  Those mistakes really cost the 2012 and 2013 offenses, so the big question I’m asking is will the coaching staff make the same mistakes again?

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