BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech Football head coach Brent Pry and associate head coach J.C. Price held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 15, to recap the Hokies' first day of the early signing period. Read some of what they had to say:
BRENT PRY
(Opening statement) First of all, I want to thank you guys for being here. An exciting day for me and for everybody that's been involved. It's been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks. And obviously, putting this class together was one of the priorities, if not the biggest priority. I want to thank J.C. for all the work on this class and Mark [Diethorn], just really the work ethic and the time and effort these guys put in to hold this thing together. Mark's staff, outstanding job... I will tell you the first three or four days on the road I think the only thing we saw was defensive lineman. J.C. made sure that we saw those guys first, which I get it. But just a super job by everybody involved. And we've tried to get in front of as many of these guys as we could. It was challenging in about 10 days' time. We couldn't see them all. It's a talented group. We're excited to get them on campus. And we're really looking forward to getting to know them all better. It's been a whirlwind for them, too. A transition is never easy on anybody involved. And these kids and these families that stuck with Virginia Tech, it says a lot about them... I love the young men in this class, the talent and the combination of maturity. There's a bunch of guys with really good grades, good students, great families. To me, it's a class of guys that do things the right way, do things the (Virginia) Tech way, the way that we did things throughout these last couple of weeks, and the way that everybody out there would want them done. We're going to recruit the right kids in the right families that fit Virginia Tech. We've got a wide receiver and several offensive linemen that committed in this class. They don't know who their position coach is, which is a credit to this staff for holding that commitment and a credit to those kids and families for trusting us, a credit to Virginia Tech because they didn't just commit to a coach they committed to an institution, to what Virginia Tech is all about. I think that's a testament to what this place represents to a lot of families out there, a lot of prospects.
(On Tech's balanced recruiting class) You know, first and foremost, I think it's a well-rounded class. We obviously did a nice job up front as I mentioned with offensive and defensive lineman. We've got nine total signees on offense, we've got one that's coming included in that nine, waiting on a signature. We've got nine on defense and then a specialist so I think we've really done a nice job. That's 10 total linemen in the class and for Coach Price and myself, that's where it all starts. I'm a big believer in what we're trying to do, be a physical defense and be able to run the football and it starts up front. I think getting that core group of linemen is critical because those are the guys that are toughest to find. And we got a group there that's got size and talent and a bunch of them have a physicality that I think is very important. A couple of tight ends, we're going to be multiple with our tight ends. We got a couple of those guys in the class and that was important and they have different traits - length, speed, ball skills and the ability to block so I think it's a good group there. Wide receiver, one wideout, one running back, one quarterback and I think obviously we'll continue in this cycle, for this next signing period we'll look to to add to the offensive skill group. That is something that obviously will be important and we're already working on that. Defensively, after your six defensive linemen, which a bunch of those guys have the ability to play either side of the ball, which I always look for that. Linebackers that could look good at tailback, corners that you could play at receiver, receivers that can play corner. I think when you have multiple traits, you have a well-rounded football player. We signed one linebacker and two defensive backs. So again, I think we're front loaded, which is good. If you're going to be front-loaded somewhere, that's where you want to be is up front. We'll continue to work on the back end with the skill kids and we certainly signed a good specialist, a place kicker. I feel good about, obviously we have a really good freshman punter, so we'll keep chipping away at that.
(On recruiting the state of Virginia) Obviously, we're out there in those schools, you know, the last week for 10 days or whatever it was, just hammering that message and letting these coaches know that this isn't just talk. We're going to put the time in, we're going to invest in these schools and invest in their players and get to know them at an early age and I think this class is indicative of that. Obviously, you know, there's going to be times we go outside the footprint as needed. Just like the young man from Texas, Johnny Dickson, Johnny has roots back to Virginia, which were important to me and made sense to him. He was excited about coming home. I think when there's ties back to Tech and ties to the state, those things help... We made sure we were going to get to the guys in this state because that gave us a chance, if we were going to see Bryce Duke, then you're going to see a couple other high schools right around him that are going to be important maybe not right now but down the road. If you're going to go see Benji [Gosnell], you're going to go see some some schools in area. I think it played out pretty nicely.
J.C. PRICE
(Opening statement) One thing I think about this class and really this everyone's recruiting classes across the country, these kids went through some things and had rule changes that enabled them to do things that other classes hadn't done and that started all the way back in June. This class started in June with the official visits, the rule changes as far as the kids being able to individually come here throughout the summer and work out individually. I don't know what the number is off top of my head but I would say it was pretty close to we watched all of these guys work out in some form or capacity. The information we had on these guys was there. The families are good families, these are good kids. And then you add the transition that we went through to, for these guys to stick to it. And these guys recruited each other as much as we did. There was a huge text chain with all these guys who had verbally committed back in the summertime to try to get to know each other better and try to continue to hold this class together, which we believe is a very good class... And then to have a unique opportunity to get all of these guys on campus at the same time. They came here in the summer, it was spread out through three weekends. So there were guys who were on this text chain that really hadn't even really met each other. And then the unique circumstance of being able to add the extra official visit for those guys to get here, get to know each other just a little bit better and solidify the guys who chose to stay and I can't be happier than with the guys that chose to stay committed to Virginia Tech.
