We will be tracking recruiting in the State of Virginia in this stream. We will be focusing on all the various regions of the state and tracking offers and news regarding Virginia Tech hopefuls. All of this information will be kept in one convenient location for quick reference.
Like most college football teams, in-state recruiting for Virginia Tech is a top priority. The more talented in-state prospects that commit, the better for coaches recruiting trails and reputation among high schools and communities across the state. But as was discussed in previous posts, in recent years more and more Virginia prospects are being lured away by out of state football programs, and recruiting the top-tier prospects in Virginia has been a difficult task for the Hokies' coaching staff.
Currently there are 59 players in the NFL who went to high school in Virginia, ranking the state ninth on the list of most NFL players by state. What's even more interesting is that in terms of most NFL players by high school, Virginia's own Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake currently boasts five players in the NFL, which is good enough for second best behind St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with ten. Deep Creek has produced Ras-I Dowling and Chris Crocker, along with former Hokies Darryl Tapp, James Anderson, and DeAngelo Hall.
Predicting where prospects will land is a tricky business that is both time consuming and mind numbing. But what we will do is begin by presenting you with and following Virginia's top players throughout the recruiting process (I like to use Rivals for my rankings so we'll start with Rivals rankings).
Other sites have different players and orders in their top 25 or 30. I used Rivals and VirginiaPreps back in high school as I followed recruiting and still do to this day, so I'll use it here. So here we go with the Top 25 prospects in Virginia for 2015 according to Rivals/VirginiaPreps:
LAST UPDATED RANKINGS: MARCH 22. 2014
NAME
POSITION
HEIGHT/WEIGHT
STAR-RATING
(RIVALS)
TOWN/SCHOOL
Josh Sweat
DE
6’5"/236
4
Chesapeake (Oscar Smith)
Garret Taylor
DB
6’1"/188
4
Richmond (St. Christopher’s)
Jahvoni Simmons
LB
6’2"/240
4
Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes)
Ricky DeBerry
LB
6’2"/237
4
Richmond (St. Christopher’s)
Matthew Burrell, Jr.
OL
6’4"/286
4
Woodbridge (C.D. Hylton)
Tim Settle
DT
6’2"/307
4
Manassas (Stonewall Jackson)
Clelin Ferrell
DE
6’5"/220
4
Richmond (Benedictine)
Austin Clark
OL
6’5"/295
4
Lexington (Rockbridge)
AJ Turner
RB
5’10"/180
3
Clifton (Centreville)
Jaason Lewis
ATH
6’4"/246
4
Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes)
Darvin Taylor II
DT
6’2"/311
4
Chester (Thomas Dale)
Chad Smith
LB
6’4"/210
3
Sterling (Dominion)
Trevon Hill
DE
6’2"/233
3
Virginia Beach (Salem)
Brandon Polk
WR
5’9"/150
3
Ashburn (Briar Woods)
Deshawn McClease
RB
5’10"/178
3
Chesapeake (Oscar Smith)
Aaron Crawford
DT
6’0"/303
3
Ashburn (Stone Bridge)
Harry Lewis
DT
6’0"/260
3
Hampton (Phoebus)
Juan Thornhill
DB
6’1"/175
3
Altavista (Altavista)
Aramis Alexander
WR
6’2"/222
3
Burke (Lake Braddock)
Justin Skule
OL
6’6"/305
3
Clifton (Centreville)
Chuck Davis
DB
5’10"/167
3
Ashburn (Broad Run)
Nhyre Quinerley
DB
5’10"/170
3
Norfolk (Lake Taylor)
Chance Hall
OL
6’4"/290
3
Roanoke (Northside)
Gary Jennings
ATH
6’2"/195
2
Stafford (Colonial Forge)
Jamez Brickhouse
DB
5’10"/165
3
Virginia Beach (Bayside)
Star Breakdown:
There are ten four-star recruits on this list, fourteen three-star recruits, and one two-star recruit, giving the Top 25 prospects an average star-rating of 3.36 according to Rivals/VirginiaPreps.
As we all know, star-ratings will change over time as the season progresses and eventually teams' coaches will mold players into higher star-ratings than listed when entering college. This is something that Virginia Tech has done consistently over the years with a variety of players. And some players won't even fulfill their star-ranking, which is a pitfall in the recruiting process for players, coaches, and fans alike.
But overall, this class has some elite talent, some of which Virginia Tech has already landed or is seemingly in the running for. But out of state competitors are hitting Virginia hard once again.
This class is spearheaded by weakside defensive end Josh Sweat who is basically at the top of every FBS school's list and will most likely be a five-star recruit. He's seeing a lot of interest from Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia, Ohio State, and Oregon. But it is predicted that it will come down to the Hokies and the Seminoles in the long run, and it's guys like this that Tech misses out on and has been the problem when it comes down to making the jump from great football program to elite and possibly a national championship team.
This class has a lot of size and athleticism that if Tech can snatch up, it will be able to reload again next season as it's done many times in the past. But Tech will have to sell itself once again that it is the best team in the Commonwealth and is on the rise, trying to make a return to the top of the ACC while trying to be a national championship contender.
This looks to be a somewhat typical class out of Virginia with all the four-star guys, where a few may have the potential to be five-stars, and three star guys could very well move up to four-stars. But where is all the talent coming from?
Here is a nifty little map where you can see the top 25 recruits in Virginia on a map by name and rank:
https://rivals.yahoo.com/virginiapreps/football/recruiting/rankings/rank-3372/2015/map
As you can see on the map, most of the top prospects are coming from the 757 area and Northern Virginia. This has a lot to do with population density and overall talent as both area's have produced great players over the years. Next up we see the top talent in Richmond and the surrounding areas. Then scattered across the 540 the rest of the prospects round out the top 25, along with Altavista product Juan Thornhill.
But when it comes to recruiting news and rankings, I'm never sure which source is more credible than others. So here's another look at how the people over at 247Sports have ranked the top 30 prospects in Virginia for 2015:
LAST UPDATED RANKINGS: MAY 19, 2014
NAME
POSITION
HEIGHT/WEIGHT
STAR-RATING (247SPORTS)
TOWN/SCHOOL
Josh Sweat
WDE
6’5"/237
5
Chesapeake (Oscar Smith)
Tim Settle
DT
6’3"/318
5
Manassas (Stonewall Jackson)
Jaason Lewis
ATH
6’3"/233
4
Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes)
Garrett Taylor
CB
6’1"/188
4
Richmond (St. Christopher’s)
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