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2015 Recruiting Run Down

Meet the Future of Virginia Tech Football

Geoff Burke/Getty Images

It's Christmas morning in Blacksburg.  The coaching staff has finished its "shopping" list, and here are the results.  Nationally, we are at least back in the game. In the conference, most services rank us third, 24/7 has us ranked fifth in the A.C.C..  Only time will tell which signees create the biggest impact, but on the whole this class has all the signs of a special one.  We will run you through all 24 new Hokies, starting with the biggest names of this incoming class.

Tim Settle 6'2" 325  DE (Manassas, VA)

Seems to be the consensus home run amongst the staff.  A huge kid with unlimited potential.

Next on the list was a QB, and that's exactly what the Hokies got:

Dwayne Lawson 6'6" 207 QB (Tampa, FL)

Wild Turkey anyone? With this dual threat running the attack, the possibilities are endless...

After securing a big time QB, the Hokies put a definite exclamation point on the class with Trevon Hill.  Tech had to absolutely nail this player.  Hailing from Virginia Beach, Hill was rated as high as four stars by some services.  Hill was heavily recruited by Duke and Clemson.  Not only did Tech send a message by locking him up in the state, they told the "pretenders" that we were still the force in Virginia recruiting.

Trevon Hill 6'4" 220 DE (Salem, VA)

With two absolute destroyers on the defensive line, a QB who can run and throw, the next thought was to bolster the O-Line.  At Tech, we love two things: a debilitating defense and running the football.  We needed a big man with a nasty attitude and that's exactly what we got.

Austin Clark 6'6" 297 OT (Lexington, VA)

Bud Foster nailed down his love of a shut down corner by signing Mook Reynolds.  Reynolds is an early enrollee, and has the size and speed to compete with the pass happy offenses of today's college football. He's not big at only 6'0", but physical.

Mook Reynolds 6'0" 175 CB (Greensboro, N.C.)

Tech had seven enrollees including the previously mentioned Austin Clark and Mook Reynolds.  What does that mean for a program?  Oh, nothing much except extra learning time for the campus life, not to mention the playbook.  Running down the early enrollees looks like this:

Player                                                 Pos.    Height   Weight     School                                                              *Stars

Austin Clark OT 6'6" 297 Rockbridge County ****
Yosuah Nijman DT 6'6" 265 Fork Union Military ****
Xavier Burke TE 6'4" 250 Fork Union Military ***
Mook Reynolds CB 6'0" 175 Northern Guilford (NC) ***
Carson Lydon LB 6'1" 231 East Lake (FL) ***
Adonis Alexander S 6'3" 193 Independence (NC) ***
Tyrell Smith OG 6'4" 285 Cushing Academy (MA) ***

Interesting of note here, the footprint is getting larger.  We took care of our house with our top three rated prospects. For the last four, we venture out of the Commonwealth.  We had already locked these guys up before signing day.  Then we waited. We waited by our phones, our Twitter accounts, and for the love of God, our fax machines.  Here is the complete list of signing day Hokies that we have letters of intent for:

Player                                  Pos.            Height   Weight      School                                                                 *Stars

Tim Settle DT 6'2" 361 Stonewall Jackson ****
Dwayne Lawson QB (PRO) 6'6" 207 Hillsborough (Tampa, FL) ****
Trevon Hill DE 6'4" 220 Salem (Virginia Beach) ****
Tremaine Edmunds OLB 6'4" 220 Dan River ***
Deshawn McClease RB 5'9" 175 Oscar Smith ***
Darius Fullwood DE 6'4" 240 Good Counsel (Olney, MD) ***
Jahque Alleyne S 6'1" 180 Ocean Lakes ***
Adonis Williamson CB 6'1" 190 Arsenal Technical (Indianapolis, IN) ***
DuWayne Johnson CB 6'1" 160 Woodson H.D. (Washington, D.C.) ***
Mike Arnold OT 6'5" 280 Winter Haven Senior (Winter Haven, FL) ***
Harry Lewis DT 6'2" 260 Phoebus ***
Eric Whitehead DT 6'1" 300 Arsenal Technical (Indianapolis, IN) ***
Houshun Gaines DE 6'4" 220 Nash Central (Rocky Mount, NC) ***
Chris Cunningham TE 6'3" 225 Atlantic Coast (Jacksonville, FL) ***
D'Andre Plantin OT 6'5" 277 Norcross (Norcross, GA) ***
Zachariah Hoyt C 6'5" 275 Salem ***
Coleman Fox RB 5"11 190 Salem ***

So here they are. These kids most likely will play valuable snaps in the Bristol Bowl. I know all of you have that circled on your calendars.  Looking through the list, some interesting "gets" stand out.  Eric Whitehead was generally lauded as a surprise signing.  After all, in Indianapolis the Hokie nation may not be well represented. He brings Adonis Williamson, or Williamson brought him. Like a lot of things on signing day, it depends on who you ask.  It doesn't really matter what came first, the cart or the horse, it just matters that two serious ball players are on their way to Blacksburg.

This class as a whole is a serious upgrade.  I'm not saying that we are final four material next year, or even the year after that.  What I am saying is that at the very least, we are back in the game.  When you keep in mind that the last nine national championship teams had a nationally ranked top 10 recruiting class, its not a hard stretch.  Imagine if our coaching staff had Saban talent.  Imagine Lane Stadium packed with the type of physical, ball hawking defensive talent that made Bud Foster his bones.  It's not a fantasy anymore. We are starting to load up with the kind of talent that stamped Virginia Tech on the face of college football.  The future is here and I am loving it.