Last week’s Friday Q&A question about “athletes” recruited to Virginia Tech over the years inspired me to do a little more research.  Has Tech’s coaching staff, either during the Frank Beamer era or during Justin Fuente’s tenure, had a habit of favoring one side of the ball or the other when deciding where to slot their recruited “athletes”?

I used the TSL recruiting database to go through all recruiting classes since 2004 up through 2018.  Keep in mind that just because a recruit might be listed as an “athlete” in our database doesn’t mean he is included in this article.  For example, Jovonn Quillen committed to Tech as an athlete, and Scot Loeffler told him that “anybody can come in and win the job.”  However, I don’t think there was ever any real chance that Quillen was going to end up on offense, so I’m not going to include him.  Others fall into a similar category.  Bryce Watts was listed as an athlete, although I believe Virginia Tech saw him as a defensive back the entire time.

Also, some players were listed as athletes, but they were never considered for the defensive side of the ball.  For example, Marcus Davis could have been considered an “athlete.”  However, it was only a question of whether he would play wide receiver or quarterback.  He was never considered a defensive recruit.  Those athletes are not included, either.

On the other hand, some players are not listed as “athletes” in our database, though there were always questions during their recruitment as to what position they would play in college.  Those guys are listed in this article.  Examples are guys like Kam Chancellor, Brenden Motley and Wyatt Teller, who are listed at QB, QB and OL, respectively, in our database.

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