Virginia Tech’s football program didn’t waste any time turning its full attention to class of 2015 recruiting, hosting a “Junior Day” event today. The event, which was attended by a good amount of Tech’s top targets in the class of 2015, has already yielded at least one verbal commitment.
“Excited to say that I am a Virginia Tech Hokie 2015 DB Commit! Go Hokies❗️#hokies #HOKIENATION,” tweeted H.D. Woodson (Washington, D.C.) class of 2015 cornerback DuWayne Johnson, who attended Saturday’s event in Blacksburg. Johnson later took to Twitter to reveal that he plans to enroll in January of 2015.
There are conflicting reports concerning the possible commitment of Northern Guilford (Greensboro, N.C.) junior cornerback Mook Reynolds to the Hokies, but we know that Reynolds was in Blacksburg and Tech is at least in good position with him.
Regardless of how many commitments there were on the day, Virginia Tech coaches took to Twitter to express their pleasure with the day.
Aaron Moorehead: “Such a special day at Virginia Tech today. Great start to this 2015 class. Had some special young men & their families in all day #hokies”
Bryan Stinespring: “Thanks to the terrific group of prospects and parents that attended our Junior Day! Great day !”
Charley Wiles: “Fantastic JR Day!! Thanks to all the future Hokies for coming #HokieNation”
Judging by the reaction of recruits on Twitter, the coaches had reason to be excited.
Gilman (Baltimore, MD) class of 2015 quarterback/athlete Kai Locksley, a 4-star prospect, tweeted: “Safe to say the hokies will be serious contenders in my recruitment, excellent visit!”
Locksley, son of current Maryland offensive coordinator Mike Locksley, boasts offers from many top programs including Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Maryland and Virginia Tech.
Another 4-star recruit, Franklin (Reisterstown, MD) offensive lineman Patrick Allen, tweeted: “Just came from the VT Junior day was really cool !”
The 6’5”, 265-pound Allen boasts many offers including Florida State, Tennessee, USC, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech appears to have made a significant move with Hylton (Woodbridge, VA) offensive tackle Matthew Burrell, a junior with scholarship offers from throughout the nation including Alabama, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Ohio State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. He tweeted: “Tennessee is next but I LOVED tech! #HOKIENATION”
And finally, Rockbridge County (Lexington, VA) junior offensive tackle Austin Clark tweeted that “It was good to be back at VT!”
Clark, who impressed at Tech’s one-day camp last July and has earned offers from the Hokies and many others, also tweeted a pic of him and four other offensive line recruits, including Burrell. The caption read: “This would be a nasty front 5.”
Yet another line prospect, Derek Brown out of Katy (TX), commented on a picture similar to Clark’s, tweeting: “Future OL/DL?”
Brown also visited the University of Virginia while in the Commonwealth and showed his appreciation to both UVa and Tech.
“Thank you @CoachSWach and @cobrown58 for the EXCELLENT visit. First class programs,” tweeted the 6’4″, 300-pound junior DL/OL. “@CoachSWach” is UVa’s Scott Wachenheim, while @cobrown58 is Cornell Brown.
It is not known where Brown stands in terms of an offer from Tech, but he was invited on Saturday, so certainly he is being seriously considered for one.
More Junior Day News & Notes
– Per BeamerBall.com, around 45 prospects were expected to be in attendance.
– Top in-state junior defensive tackle Tim Settle, a prospect out of Stonewall Jackson (Manassas, VA) with offers from Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and many others. Virginia and Alabama seemed to be the frontrunners for the 6’3″, 310-pound prospect until he attended a game at Tech last fall. The Hokies appear to be a real serious contender for him now.
– Ashton White, a cornerback out of Friendship Collegiate (Washington, D.C.), is a Virginia Tech commitment and was in attendance yesterday.
– Stone Bridge (Ashburn, VA) juniors Aaron Crawford (DT) and Tanner Karafa (LB) attended. Per Rivals, Tech has offered Karafa. The Hokies have offered Crawford as well.
Stone Bridge is a school Tech has had success recruiting in the past, landing Ed and David Wang. Current walk-on back-up quarterback Brian Rody is from the Ashburn school as well. Tech missed out on defensive end Jonathan Allen in the class of 2013, though. Allen is at Alabama.
– Tremaine Edmunds, a junior tight end/outside linebacker out of Dan River (Ringgold, VA), made his way to Blacksburg yesterday. Tremaine is the younger brother of Trey and Terrell Edmunds, Tremaine is a coveted prospect who boasts offers from Maryland, UNC, UVa and Virginia Tech.
– Sterling Johnson, a junior defensive tackle/offensive lineman out of Cleveland High School (Clayton, N.C.), was in attendance. He has offers from Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and others.
– On the class of 2016 front, Virginia Tech has reportedly offered running back CJ Freeman, a teammate of Mook Reynolds. Freeman tweeted: “Good day at VT, really liked the facility and the food too! Haha”
Stay tuned to TSL for more from this weekend’s Junior Day event.
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I went to an ODU function Thursday night and Coach Bobby Wilder told me he was taking his son up there a LB prospect. He said he would not wear any ODU stuff and I told him, “Coach they know who you are and I think Hokie Nation would love to have you and your son.” Not sure if this is the right forum but listening to Coach Wilder speak it makes CFB look like the old guy in the balcony at the muppets. I am a huge CFB fan and believe there will be a statue of him one day at Lane. But there is some energy in Norfolk and I think it is going to grow and quick. I remember a time when VT was not on a map until Vick. All it takes is one player. I have posted on the board before that Tech should be scared of losing more of the 757 to ODU than UVA.
Thanks CH and CC. Great start on future recruiting for VT. I must admit I have no advice to give the Staff as far as recruiting. Just wanted to say its nice to have a young and medium age Staff willing to give its all in recruiting. Another YR like 2013,2014 an we will be on our way to even greater heights.
CH and CC thanks again for a great article. Are you guys there for every event like this, and are you following up with all of these recruits personally for TSL? Is anyone else doing the same like the recruiting services, or do you get most of your direct info from the services?
Are you all receiving the same respect / credentials as the bitters, doughtys, local TV news reporters, etc?
The media isn’t allowed in on Junior Days, but we can go to the camps over the summer. And yeah, we receive the same respect as all the media.
We use all the national databases to see offers and such, and read updates to get a general feel. For me personally, I usually operate off a gut feel as to whether or not we have a chance to land a guy. For example, my gut feel the whole time with Javon Harrison is that we would not get him, based on VT’s history with guys like him in the past and reading his quotes from recruiting updates.
Thanks for the info.
Awesome, thanks for sharing these post and details of junior day. Looking forward to following these recuits. Hopefully the Hokies can.pull in a monster class.
It is so frustrating to hear that a top DT (Settle) has Alabama and UVA as his top schools. Glad to hear VT made up ground but this is a non-757 Virginia prospect that doesn’t have VT at the top of his list. Is VT not sexy enough or what could be the issue. Obviously, most kids that attend VT love it so VT is a special place. Why can’t we sell that message?
We did sell ourselves to 26 young men just a few days ago. It’s not where you are at the start of the race, it’s where you are at the finish. We didn’t sign several kids who loved us as juniors this time last year and signed some *really* good prospects who weren’t even close to being on the radar.
The positive is that our current coaching staff has much better recruiting ability than those in the past. We just need to turn that into a better product on the field.
Bwater, I was thinking the EXACT same thing!! My first thought was that UA and uva must have reached out to them first, and (over)analytically, I started wondering if our coaches could have contacted him earlier. A set of coaches likely has these priorities of work:
1. Game prep
2. Starting player development
3. Backup player development
4. Rising hs senior recruiting and school visits
5. Personal family care (if they’re lucky, or its summertime)
6. Rising hs junior recruiting
7. Rising hs sophomore recruiting
And a million other things I can’t think of. At this point, all of those extra UA staff members must come into play, allowing things like more time to evaluate rising hs sophomores, etc. Didn’t nick saban recently make news regarding offering a freshman or something like that? Which may or may not be relevant to my point, but maybe these other schools are allocating their resources in a way that allows them to find the stars earlier.
In uvas case, those priorities may not be sound in terms of coaches time allocation if they continue to fail on the field, but in terms of recruiting, they obviously have smoked us for at least the last two years in terms of some big name recruits, possibly because of some of the personal relationships they established earlier that VT.
CC, any thoughts on this, or on coaching priorities??
Good point about the numbers of staff. I’ll have an article about that at some point I think. I’ve just got to carve out the time.
FWIW, I don’t think Settle will sign with UVA.
Probably Bammer bound.
” It’s not where you are at the start of the race, it’s where you are at the finish.”
This is EXCELLENT advice (both plus AND minus) and should be memorized by every single Hokie fan!. It should be run across the top of the home page in banner fashion until NEXT year this time!
Great to have guys so interested, and would WELCOME any and ALL of them in a second…BUT, it is February 2014, and we will not know ANYTHING good OR bad until we see the FAXES next February…
May I add, “Be happy if you are ahead at the beginning of the race, because you are closer to the finish line for victory.”
Tickles the hell out of me when we get a verbal, even if no guarantee. I am not going to frustrate myself thinking “what might go wrong”-I just enjoy the VT verbal instead of UVA or UNC verbal.
Read the update again. UVA and Bama were early leaders. VT appears to have at least drawn even:
“Virginia and Alabama seemed to be the frontrunners for the 6’3″, 310-pound prospect until he attended a game at Tech last fall. The Hokies appear to be a real serious contender for him now.”
Looks like a bunch of these guys are being recruited by Alabama. Seems like Alabama is recruiting nationally now instead of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, etc.. Wish Saban would stay home.
Saban has been recruiting nationally forever
I just read an article comparing alabama vs auburn recruiting footprints. Saban certainly goes large …
But he owns his back yard, VT needs to do a better job of recruiting 5* players in VA. VT use to host HS coaches to Spring Game, do we still do that? Need to get them to buy in to keeping talent in VA, hopefully VT.
And not a word about this on on Hokiesports?!
Calling Whit!
Can the athletic department directly talk about recruits who haven’t signed a LOI? I know the coaches can’t.
Remember, they University (Hokiesports) can’t use these kids names. There wouldn’t be much to write without them.
The first rule of Fight Club is…