The Hokie hype machine is spinning its wheels again. Annette thinks the Hokies are the front runner in the ACC and she is now joined by Giggity from ACC Now. Yesterday was a bit of a surprise when he named NC State the favorite in the Atlantic. It was less of a surprise that he named the defending conference champs the favorite in the Coastal.
While he believes we are the favorite in the division, he does stop short of the Top 5 talk we saw last week from SI.
Before you start believing the top-5 in the country preseason hype about VT, remember the Hokies lost three conference games for the first time in '08 and won the division on a tiebreaker (at 5-3 same as Georgia Tech).
While the Coastal was the weaker group in '08, it will be the better half of the ACC in '09. In short, it won't be a walk for the favorites.
It's good to see that at least the regional writers remember that this team is far from world-beaters. We were the Heart Attack Hokies in 2008 and I don't see why it should be different in 2009. We aren't going to just go out there and dominate this conference.
But I will agree that we should be the favorite in the division. There are a lot of experienced players back from a team that won the conference last year. After the ECU loss, our expectations went down significantly for 2008. It'll be interesting to see how this team plays with a bull's eye on its back every step of the way.
See, it's starting to go away
The Collegiate Times brought to light a series of posters that included images and names of current Tech players promoting parties in the Hampton Roads area. If the players gave the OK for the posters or were compensated for promoting the parties, it would be an NCAA violation.
It looks like neither is the case and this will go away quickly. The players are now working with the compliance office to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Tyrod Taylor had one of the fliers as his Facebook photo. VT's compliance official, Tim Parker, has the same sentiment I did on Wednesday as to why he would do this. He's a college kid who wasn't thinking about the consequences:
"It wasn't a good decision (to put the fliers up)," Parker said. "If I'm 20 and I see myself on a poster, I would think, 'Hey, that's pretty cool. I'm going to put that on my Facebook.' I can see why he would do that. Clearly he wasn't thinking about the types of things that we hope they think about. All it looks like right now is that it was a harmless situation and our guys were not involved in the planning or on the front end of this promotion."
So, like we suspected, there's nothing to see here. Move along now.
[Mini Rant]
This is the purpose of stories like the one the CT ran. It shed light on a potential issue, which is now being dealt with effectively by the university. Solid piece of journalism by the CT, which neither crucified nor glorified the players in the original piece. If it hadn't been for the CT, the problem wouldn't have been discovered until later, which could have lead to more trouble. Good job, J-schoolers.
[/Mini Rant]
We be recruitin'
The Hokies received three commitments for their 2010 recruiting class Thursday, bringing their total to seven. This included two quarterbacks: Ricardo Young from DC and Mark Leal from Florida. Leal goes to Delray Beach Atlantic, the same high school that produced Brandon Flowers and Jayron Hosley.
Quarterback was a primary concern for the Hokies, who didn't come away with one in the 2009 class. If Young and Leal sign next year, they will almost certainly redshirt during Tyrod's senior year.
The commitments have many Hokie fans, including TSL's Will Stewart, breathing a sigh of relief. Stewart takes an in-depth look at both QBs in Blogsburg today.
A quick look at YouTube highlights for Mark Leal and Ricardo Young show two quarterbacks whose size is similar but whose skills vary. Leal is the more polished passer, though his mechanics could use refinement. He’s got a strong arm and is a decent runner, and I couldn’t help but notice that the large majority of his snaps were taken in the shotgun. He’ll need to work on taking the snap from center and dropping back into the pocket.
Young’s mechanics are rougher than Leal’s, but Young appears to be a better runner, and he takes more snaps — though not all — from under center. Young is an outstanding student, carrying a 4.0 GPA and planning on graduating early.
Hopefully one of them turns out be Tech's starting QB in 2011 or 2012. However, allow me to introduce you to a term I learned during my seven years working in baseball: TNSTAAPP. There's No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect.
Basically, so many things can go wrong with a pitcher mentally and physically that you can't expect a guy doing great in Double-A to be a stud when he gets to the big leagues.
I think its the same way with high school quarterbacks. With few exceptions, there are now sure things in recruiting quarterbacks. It's a position that isn't easy at any level, especially D1 football. There's a lot of things that can go wrong. That's why I'm really excited the Hokies were able to get commitments from two solid-looking QBs on the same day. It gives the Hokies options.
Linkage
Hokies
- Young needs to be Gentryfied. (Beer Control Offense)
- Young and Leal go beyond "star" value. (VT Fan)
- Hoops assistant Stacey Palmore is heading to UGa. (Daily Press)
- The NCAA has not declared a player ineligible on Tim Parker's watch. (Annette)
ACC and Opponents
- A closer look at Georgia Tech's schedule. (The Legacyx4)
- I like using a committee but still don't like 16 teams. Although the format is intriguing. (From Old Virginia)
- A look at two hoops rule changes. (Tar Heel Fan)
- The 2009-10 ACC bowl schedule. No Outback Bowl, NCAA. (ACC)
Stuff Only I Care About
- Blogging isn't journalism. (EDSBS)
- Vancouver took the crowd out of it for 57 minutes. It wasn't enough. (Kurtenblog)
- Amalie Benjamin (who I love and in a heartbeat would give up my hard-drinking, road-tripping bachelor ways for) looks at Big Papi's slow start. (Globe)