2015 Football Recruiting in the Commonwealth of Virginia

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)
Clelin Ferrell	DE	6’5"/225	4	Richmond (Benedictine)
Ricky DeBerry	OLB	6’2.5"/255	4	Richmond (St. Christopher’s)
Matthew Burrell	OT	6’5.75"/290	4	Woodbridge (C.D. Hylton)
Austin Clark	OT	6’6"/296	4	Lexington (Rockbridge)
Darvin Taylor	DT	6’2"/295	4	Chester (Thomas Dale)
Darrell Taylor	WDE	6’4"/220	4	Hopewell (Hopewell)
Deshawn McClease	RB	5’9"/175	4	Chesapeake (Oscar Smith)
A.J. Alexander	WR	6’4"/220	4	Burke (Lake Braddock)
Jahvoni Simmons	ILB	6’1"/225	4	Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes)
Tremaine Edmunds	OLB	6’3"/200	3	Ringgold (Dan River)
Harry Lewis	SDE	6’2"/260	3	Hampton (Phoebus)
Trevon Hill	WDE	6’3"/210	3	Virginia Beach (Salem)
Chance Hall	DT	6’4"/288	3	Roanoke (Northside)
Felton Davis III	WR	6’3"/175	3	Highland Springs (Highland Springs)
Trevion Armstrong	WR	6’4"/215	3	Midlothian (Manchester)
Jamez Brickhouse	CB	5’9"/165	3	Virginia Beach (Bayside)
Mike Majette	ATH	5’11"/195	3	Woodbridge (Woodbridge)
Brandon Polk	WR	5’9"/152	3	Ashburn (Briar Woods)
Quincy Watts	WR	5’11"/165	3	Virginia Beach (Ocean Lakes)
Chad Smith	OLB	6’3"/200	3	Sterling (Dominion)
Juan Thornhill	ATH	6’2"/175	3	Altavista (Altavista)
Malik Clements	S	6’2"/185	3	Danville (George Washington)
AJ Turner	S	5’11"/180	3	Clifton (Centreville)
Gus Little	ILB	6’3"/230	3	Fredericksburg (Massaponax)
Christian Martey	RB	6’0"/215	3	Clifton (Centreville)
Tanner Krafa	ILB	6’3"/240	3	Ashburn (Stone Bridge)

According to 247Sports there are two five-star recruits, eleven four-star recruits, and seventeen three-star recruits in Virginia's top 30 list, bringing the average to 3.5 stars. There's some mixing of players and star-ratings between the two list, so take from them what you will.

Here are the players from the Top 30 that have already committed:

Name	School
Jaason Lewis	UCLA
Garrett Taylor	Michigan
Harry Lewis	Virginia Tech
Jamez Brickhouse	Old Dominion
Brandon Polk	Penn State
Chad Smith	Clemson
Juan Thornhill	Virginia
Malik Clements	Cincinnati

Here's a breakdown of recruits by area code:

AREA	NUMBER OF RECRUITS
Northern Virginia	9
757	8
Richmond Area	7
540 (Western and Northern parts of Virginia)	3
434 (Central and some of Southern Virginia )	3

Both Northern Virginia and the 757 lead the way with 17 recruits total from proven high talent level high schools. These two areas keep churning up football players left and right and don't seem to be letting up any time soon.

Meanwhile, the Richmond area isn't far behind with its seven recruits. Tech can usually snatch up promising players from here and develop them into four-star college athletes.

Finally, there are the few gems of the 540 and 434 where elite talent is hard to come by at times.

As of right now, the trend seems to be the same with the 2015 Top 30 Recruiting Class of Virginia. There are promising and talented players with elite skill waiting to be snatched up in the Commonwealth. But will the out of state schools lure them away once more, or will Virginia Tech be able to persuade the much needed elite talent to ship to Blacksburg in hopes of returning to its consistent winning ways and championship contention?

Stay tuned and check back with Gobbler Country where we'll have consistent coverage of recruiting in Virginia.