2011 and The Beginning of the End

A series of poor returns on recruiting classes under Frank Beamer is why Tech is where it is. - Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsEarlier this week I was reading an ESPN article by Andrea Adelson about Virginia Tech's decline. In 2010 we were doing very well for ourselves- and then everything took a turn downhill. We ended that season flattened by Stanford, a team that ended up graduating Andrew Luck, David DeCastro, Coby Fleener, Stepfan Taylor, Levine Toilolo, Zach Ertz, Jonathan Martin, Sione Fua, Owen Marecic, Richard Sherman, and Ryan Whalen into the NFL. We were simply outclassed. Our defense was beaten publicly for 247 rushing yards (8.0 average!) and 287 passing yards. We were too small, schematically out-thought, and out-talented, and it showed. It's little wonder that after that public flogging, in a year we won an ACC championship, the recruiting class we gathered ended up with only 3 composite 4-star players- with only 22 total players signed (20 enrolled). We obviously made it to the Orange Bowl in 2011 and lost to Michigan, but the damage had actually been done. It wasn't even that the players we signed in that 2011 class didn't meet expectations. Many didn't even see the field. Of those 19, only Dadi Nicholas, Luther Maddy, Ryan Malleck, Corey Marshall, and Kyshoen Jarrett saw productive playing time- and that was after Marshall was on and off the team. Names that left the program or never saw the field for whatever reason: Boye Aromire, Matt Roth, James Farrow, Christian Reeves, Dewayne Alford, Jake Goins, Michael Branthover, Justin Taylor, Robert Lockhart, Chris Hall. Hall and Lockhart were the two that never enrolled- grades or other issues. Lockhart ended up committing to Nebraska and signed on to Miami then ended up at Falkner University. Chris Hall ended up at Virginia Union. This class also included Michael Holmes- kicked off the team and eventually jailed- and Michael Cole- showed promise in limited time but had a neck injury that ended his career. It also featured Ronny Vandyke, who was no revelation at Whip.

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