already committed to their respective programs. As you probably know, many higher end guys commit by sophomore years in high school. Some trickle into their junior year (for many reasons). So the 2021 class is really the first class year this staff has had the "same amount of time" as the competitors have from a relationship/evaluate build scenario......

If you are only discussing pitching, which is what it looks like in your post, we probably have our best set of pitching recruits ever committed to coming here for the class of 2021 (at least in the modern era). While these things are hard to tell and never sure how they will turn out, we haven't had three pitchers committed with these type of rankings/evals in, maybe ever. We have the number 36, 93, and 177 overall players coming here (assuming they do in fact arrive) and they are all pitchers. Guys that are already hitting mid 90's consistently with one hitting top end of 98. While I don't necessarily get into specific number rankings, it is more about the neighborhood they live in, so to speak. To have the top pitcher in the state commit here is unheard of here in the VT ACC era. In fact, to have two (both pitchers) of the top six in VA (overall) commit here is very different/rare air we are entering. We are talking about high level difference making dudes for the first time. And the fourth pitching prospect coming is no slouch with some long term capability (he is the 13th overall prospect in VA). So, we shall see what recruiting "stud" pitchers for the first time will look like under this staff. But his is really the first real class of pitchers they have coming in (under normal recruiting time frames). Many of those 15-20 pitchers that have come in prior to this year were purely "stop gap" measures for a lack of a better term to hold us over. Some of those have turned into quality college pitchers (not great), and weren't intended to be "studs." Some are yet to be determined as well.....But the new crop coming in, is the most ACC ready group we have had.

To say, the current staff can't "count" Simo under their development is hard to even digest. Just because he is a VA kid with "friends" on the team doesn't mean they should not get some credit for his success. You can't have it both ways, and say for the guys that don't develop, blame it on the staff, but the guys that do, it was someone else's doing. They have only had two seasons (outside of the 2018 year--the throw away year as mentioned-don't disagree with that assessment btw), this being the second full year, so its not like they have multiple years of pitchers one way or the other. Plus, you mentioned developing guys that weren't studs initially but improved each year.....don't forget they did turn Seymour into a second round guy (I believe the highest pitcher drafted here since Joe Saunders), and that was not his thought to be ceiling coming out of HS. He got progressively better each year under this staff to work into a second round pick. And Alford has gotten much better to work into a weekend ACC starter.......And yes, you do have to count Gerard as well. Are they going to have 100% success rates on guys? Of course not, but they have had started to develop some guys as well. I get the outside pitching coach stuff, that is around for pitchers at UVA, Carolina, GT, Clemson, etc.

Time will tell how well this staff will do. To say, we aren't much more competitive as a program is flat out inaccurate. We are all disappointed in the slump, and yes, this past weekend was a disappointment. But it was not all on pitching either. In fact, I would argue that it was more of an offensive loss than anything. But that is how it goes, and they will need to regroup and have everyone do their jobs better moving forward. The margin of winning and losing in this league is tiny, especially with a 36 game grind. Next year will be the key evaluation year of the contract, it will be year 5 in a 6 year deal. It will be an extension year or else scenario, so that is when the progress made will be evaluated. Not sure most here realize the climb VT baseball had to make from where we were.......