[ Post a Response | J.R.'s Mountaineer Message Board ]
Posted by Russ on 4/22/2008, 9:07 pm, in reply to "Hurrah for Beatty"
68.110.148.226
I live in the Tidewater area and went to high school in Hampton. Beatty has got a great reputation and I'm glad to see he is recruiting well. It was all over the news when Boyd and Heastie committed. Ruffled a few feathers to say the least and, more importantly, garnered a lot of interest from other high school players. Hope these kids follow through.
--Previous Message--
: Beatty, hired by new West Virginia
: football coach Bill Stewart, was the
: point man for the Mountaineers’
: successful recruitment of Phoebus
: quarterback Tahj Boyd and Great Bridge
: wide receiver Logan Heastie.
:
: Boyd and Heastie were the Nos. 1 and 3
: juniors on The Roanoke Times’ list of
: the top prospects in Virginia, and West
: Virginia might not be stopping there.
:
: Phoebus coach Bill Dee said he could
: see WVU becoming a player with Phoebus
: defensive lineman Dominik Davenport,
: rated the No. 4 prospect on the
: juniors’ list.
:
: “They’re getting ready to offer him,”
: Dee said. “They’re going to be in the
: mix for him.”
:
: Virginia Tech hasn’t offered Davenport
: yet. Virginia has.
:
: As to whom Beatty could hurt more, “I’d
: have to say right now, he’s probably
: hurting Tech more because Tech has been
: getting a lot of kids in this area,”
: Dee said. “Virginia hasn’t been a huge
: factor in this area.”
:
: New Virginia defensive coordinator Bob
: Pruett has been assigned the
: Hampton-Newport News area.
:
: “Pruett’s contacted me a couple of
: times,” Dee said. “I probably met Bobby
: once or twice way back, but I know of
: him. There’s no question, they need to
: do something to get back in this area.”
:
: West Virginia’s growing influence is
: more than just Beatty.
:
: “I’ve known Bill Stewart since ’79 and
: I think a lot of Bill Stewart,” Dee
: said. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t
: know how hard [the Mountaineers] were
: pushing for a commitment.”
:
: Boyd and Heastie had been at West
: Virginia over the weekend of March
: 14-16 and Boyd called Dee from
: Morgantown to say he was committing.
:
: “I didn’t get a chance to sit down and
: talk to him when he got back Monday but
: he told me over the phone, ‘It’s just
: where I want to go,’ “ Dee said.
:
: “So, hey, I just told him, ‘The
: recruiting’s over right now. You gave
: them your word.’ And, I’m not going to
: have a lot of schools in here trying to
: contact him. That’s the end of the
: recruitment.’
:
: Boyd was a freshman at Landstown High
: School in Virginia Beach in Beatty’s
: last season as the Landstown coach.
:
: “He knew him but I don’t think that had
: a whole lot to do with it,” Dee said.
: “West Virginia made it real clear that
: he was their top prospect that they had
: on the board, period. He was getting
: hand-written letters from each [WVU]
: coach twice a week.
:
: “Beatty definitely knows the area. I
: think he’s going to make a huge push in
: this area. Yes, I do. He’s familiar
: with a lot of the coaches. He’s
: familiar with a lot of the kids. He’s
: young and ambitious.”
:
: West Virginia’s spread offense is
: popular with quarterbacks with the
: combination passing and running skills
: that Boyd possesses.
:
: “We’ve used a lot more of it,” Dee
: said. “We ran some one-back [shot] gun
: and did some things to utilize his
: one-back abilities and he can
: definitely run. My understanding from
: talking to their offensive coordinator
: and talking to Bill is that they’re
: going to try to move toward throwing
: the ball more, rather than running the
: quarterback. Tahj is an athletic
: quarterback, but he can throw.”
:
: Two years ahead of Boyd, another
: Peninsula District quarterback, Tyrod
: Taylor of Hampton, was considered the
: No. 1 prospect in the state.
: Comparisons have been inevitable.
:
: “They’re a little different,” Dee said.
: “Without ruffling a whole lot of
: feathers but trying to be honest with
: you, Tyrod can run better and I think
: Tahj is a more pure passer, not to take
: away from either one.”
:
: The No. 2 rated junior on the Roanoke
: Times list was Kevin Newsome, a
: 6-foot-3, 210-pound quarterback from
: Western Branch High School in
: Chesapeake
:
: “Tahj has worked hard on his speed,”
: Dee said. “I think he went down to a
: combine and everybody was talking about
: the Newsome kid’s speed, but Tahj ran a
: faster 40.”
:
: Dee said Boyd was timed in 4.56.
: Newsome had been in contact with West
: Virginia, but the Mountaineers had to
: inform him that they could no longer
: recruit him as a quarterback, although
: part of Newsome’s attraction is that he
: is seen as a prospect at multiple
: positions.
:
: While Stewart couldn’t address the Boyd
: and Heastie commitments, he did note in
: a phone conversation earlier this week
: that West Virginia had gotten in the
: door with 4-5 Virginia seniors at the
: end of the recruiting process this
: year.
:
: “Chris Beatty will get us involved in
: Tidewater like I couldn’t do and nobody
: could do,” Stewart said.
:
: ON ANOTHER FRONT, the Mountaineers also
: have gotten involved with D.J. Thomas,
: a one-time Virginia Tech football
: recruit whom the Hokies eventually
: stopped pursuing for academic reasons.
:
: Thomas signed a letter-of intent with
: Tech in the winter of 2007, when he was
: a senior at Patrick Henry in Ashland,
: but did not meet NCAA eligibility
: guidelines. It was Thomas’ intention to
: spend the fall of 2007 at Hargrave
: Military Academy and enroll at Tech in
: January, but that was not the Hokies’
: plan.
:
: According to Tech’s interpretation of
: new recruiting legislation last year,
: the Hokies felt that Thomas would need
: to attend junior college. Thomas felt
: that he could get the credits he needed
: in one year at Hargrave Military
: Academy.
:
: So, Thomas, a running back, enrolled at
: Hargrave, but he never played at
: Hargrave as a result of a knee injury
: suffered in the Virginia High School
: All-Star Game. He subsequently
: underwent surgery and remains enrolled
: at Hargrave, where WVU has been
: monitoring his progress.
:
: JAMIE OAKES, WHO covers UVa football
: recruiting for rivals.com, reported
: this week that the Cavaliers have made
: an offer to left-handed quarterback
: Ross Metheny (6-3, 190) from Sherando
: High School outside Winchester.
:
: Virginia earlier had made an offer to
: Tom Savage, a 6-3, 230-pound
: quarterback from Cardinal O’Hare in
: Philadelphia. However, the offer to
: Metheny is not seen as a reflection on
: the Savage recruiting because the
: Cavaliers are not opposed to taking two
: quarterbacks in this class.
:
: Savage already has offers from Penn
: State, Florida State, Miami, LSU and
: Georgia, so he’s going to be hard to
: get. Metheny, rated the No. 21 junior
: in Virginia by The Roanoke Times,
: already had received an offer from
: Connecticut and was preparing for a
: tour of spring-practice workouts. His
: recruiting has been heating up.
:
: The Metheny recruiting was complicated
: when he broke his left ankle (fibula)
: early in Sherando’s 56-10 loss to
: Amherst in the Group AA Division 4
: championship game (Sherando led 10-7 at
: the time). At the time of an operation
: Dec. 9, it was felt that rehabilitation
: would take 8-12 weeks.
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread