Friday Q&A: December 14, 2012

1: When will VT go back and start recruiting Florida more? The number 100 recruit in Florida is better than anyone in our area who is number 6 through 30 in VA recruiting rankings. We need to recruit this area and there are plenty of sleeper recruits there.

GMSA: Here’s the long answer to your question:

As most of you TSL subscribers already know, Frank Beamer (with input from the staff) made the decision several years ago to de-emphasize the state of Florida in recruiting based on the high number of decommits and poaching that was done there by other schools.  Personally, I think this is the right decision for a couple of reasons.

First, is that Virginia Tech is rarely going to be a “dream school” for most top level Florida talent.  Blacksburg is way too far away from Florida for many of their families to see them play, and the climate/culture of SWVA is very, very different from the Miami area, for example, where a lot of top talent is located.  The Hokies run the risk of recruiting a kid to Blacksburg, only to have him sign his letter, come to town to play football and end up being miserable based on the weather and cultural changes.  Also, when recruiting kids from far away high schools where you don’t have solid relationships with their coaches, it is much tougher to really know about the kid’s background and character.  Does all of this sound familiar?  It should.

...