This is the second in a series of articles rating Virginia Tech recruiting classes from 1990 to the present. Last issue, we rated the 1990 recruiting class, and discovered that it had some outstanding players in Jim Pyne, Maurice DeShazo, Antonio Freeman, Tyronne Drakeford, and Ken Brown.

This month, we'll take a look at the 1991 class that included such memorable names as Jim Druckenmiller, George DelRicco, and J.C. Price. Like the 1990 class, there is no question that the 1991 class was a great recruiting class. This class played a key role in winning the 1995 Sugar Bowl, a level the Hokie football team had never reached before.

While some of the key players on that 1995 Sugar Bowl team were from other recruiting classes -- guys like Torrian Gray, Antonio Banks, Bryan Still, Cornell Brown, Jim Baron, Brian Edmonds, and Bryan Jennings -- the 1991 class provided some of the key players, like Druckenmiller, Dwayne Thomas, and a number of the guys that formed the deep and talented defensive line that the Hokies bludgeoned opponents with that year; Price, Jeff Holland, Lawrence Lewis, and Hank Coleman, mainstays of that eight-deep line, all came from the 1991 recruiting class.

The 1991 class also had its duds and flameouts, guys you've never even heard of before. Who remembers Jon Bishock, Joel Chapman, Ben Scott, and Kevin Skinner? Unless you're a recruiting junkie from way back, those names won't be any more familiar to you than the third string offensive line at San Diego State.

Beginning this issue, we get to start on the really fun part of this ranking exercise: we get to stack players from different classes up against each other. From here on out, we'll maintain a Top 10 list of recruits and update it as we compile more and more data on other classes. I can already tell you that it's interesting and eye-opening to see how recruits compare across different classes.

Let's get on with it, but first, a few notes on things I learned this month.

The more astute among you will notice right off the bat that Druckenmiller seems to be out of place, like he doesn't belong in the 1991 class. After all, DelRicco and Price redshirted and played their senior seasons in 1995, along with some other names you'll recognize as stars from the 1995 Sugar Bowl championship team. But Druckenmiller played through 1996.

The answer to that little riddle is that Druck signed with the Hokies in February of 1991 but did not enroll at VT that fall. Instead, despite being an academic qualifier, he stayed home in Northampton, PA and took community college classes. He didn't enroll at Tech until January 1992. He redshirted in the fall of 1992 and then played from 1993-1996.

Technically, because Druckenmiller enrolled in January of 1992, his scholarship counted against the 1992 class, not the 1991 class. But if you research Hokie Huddlers and Virginia Tech media guides from that era, Druckenmiller is always listed with the 1991 recruits, in all instances. So that's where we have slotted him.

But here's the problem, and it reveals a flaw in the TSL recruit rating system: points are awarded for "team" accomplishments for a recruiting class: wins, bowl wins, Top 25 finishes, etc. The team accomplishments that a class is given credit for are the accomplishments that would have occurred during that recruiting class' redshirt freshman through redshirt senior years. For this 1991 recruiting class, that means the class gets credit for what the Hokie football team accomplished in the 1992-1995 seasons.

Last issue, I acknowledged that true freshmen sometimes make an impact, but it's rare. Cornell Brown did in 1993, but the 1993 recruiting class will only get credit for team accomplishments from 1994-1997, not the 1993 season that Brown played a key role in.

This issue, we have the problem of Druckenmiller being a key cog in the 1996 Hokie team that went 10-2 and made it to the Orange Bowl, yet under the ranking system, the 1991 recruiting class, of which he was a part, will not get credit for accomplishments in the 1996 season.

As a sidebar, two other 1991 signees delayed enrollment until January: offensive lineman Jared Hamlin and defensive back Kwamie Lassiter. It's safe to say that neither one of those guys had an impact on the 1996 season -- neither one was even in school then -- so for the most part, this flaw in the TSL system doesn't get exposed.

I'll keep an eye on this flaw and will make adjustments in the future if a lot of January enrollees start having a significant impact "six seasons out," like Druckenmiller did.

Enough jawing, let's check out the numbers. As a reminder, here is a list of how many points are awarded for what accomplishments:

Individual accomplishments: letter earned (1 point); season starter (2 points); VT season stat leader (2); VT game (5), season (7) or career (10) record held; All-American (10); First-team AA (15); Consensus AA (20), Unanimous AA (25); national award (20); Heisman finalist (30); All-Big East 2nd (3) or 1st (5) Team; BE Player of the Year (10); BE season stats leader (5); BE game (6), season (8), or career (11) record held; BE academic honor roll (2); drafted by the NFL (3-10 points).

Class achievements: Wins (2 points per win); conference win (2); win over Virginia (5) or Miami (5); BE Champions (25); Top 25 (10) or Top 10 (15) finish; play in (15) or win (10) minor bowl; play in (25) or win (25) BCS bowl; play in championship game (50).

Note that the reasons for this ranking system, and its strengths and shortcomings, were talked about in detail last issue. Also note that this month's "Inside TSL" has a letter to the editor that talks about this ranking system a little more.

Let's do a walk-through with Tyronne Drakeford, a key member of the 1990 recruiting class. Here are his accomplishments:

• Lettered, 1990-93 (4 points, 1 for each letter)
• Started, 1991-93 (6 points, 2 for each season)
• Led VT in interceptions, 1991-93 (12 points, 4 points for each season)
• All-Big East 2nd team, 1991 (3 points)
• All-Big East 1st team, 1992-93 (10 points, 5 for each season)
• Led Big East in interceptions, 1992 (5 points)
• Drafted in the second round, 1994 (9 points)

Total points for Tyronne Drakeford: 49

Here's the entire 1991 recruiting class, and how many points each player scored in the TSL Extra system:

Jim Druckenmiller (QB, 57 points): Lettered four years; started two years; led the Hokies in passing offense and total offense in both 1995 and 1996; All-Big East 2nd team QB in 1995, 1st team QB in 1996; Big East Offensive Player of the Year in 1996; Big East total offense leader in 1996; 1st-round draft choice (26th overall) of the San Francisco 49ers in 1997.

Dwayne Thomas (RB, 37 points): Lettered four years; started three years; led the Hokies in rushing, 1993-1995; led VT in scoring, 1993; led VT in kickoff returns in 1993 and 1995; All-Big East 2nd team RB in 1995.

J.C. Price (DT, 33 points): Lettered four years; started three years; 3rd-team AP All-American in 1995; All-Big East 1st team DL in 1995; 3rd-round draft choice (88th overall) of the Carolina Panthers in 1996.

One note about J.C. Price: Jeff Holland and J.C. Price played the same defensive tackle position from 1993-1995. In 1993, Holland began the season as the starter and started 6 regular season games. Price finished the season as the starter, starting 5 regular season games and the bowl game. Since they started an equal number of games, each player was given credit as a starter for the season.

George DelRicco (LB, 23 points): Lettered four years; started three years; led Hokies in tackles in 1994 (130) and 1995 (137); All-Big East 1st team LB in 1995.

Chris Malone (OL, 17 points): Lettered four years; started four years; All-Big East 1st team OG in 1995.

Team Points Scored

In terms of team accomplishments, the 1991 recruiting class wins points for what the team accomplished in the 1992-1995 seasons. These accomplishments are:

The 483 total points posted by this recruiting class and 21.00 points per player are pretty far behind the 548 points and 22.83 points per player put up by last issue's 1990 recruiting class. The following paragraphs accumulate the data we've got so far

So far, only one other class has been rated: the 1990 recruiting class. Here's how they stack up against each other:

As a team, the 1991 class outdid the 1990 class almost two-to-one. The 1991 class won more games, won more conference games (of course, they played more conference games), beat Virginia more, had a victory over Miami, and won a Big East Championship and a BCS bowl (or Alliance Bowl, as they were called back in 1995).

But the 1991 class did not rack up nearly as many points for individual accomplishments as the 1990 class did. No one from the 1991 class got anywhere close to the 1990 trio of Pyne-DeShazo-Freeman, who scored 93, 90, and 89 points respectively. Druckenmiller got the closest, with 57 points.

Now that we're two classes into our rankings, we can start compiling an ongoing top ten list.

Four of the top five players are from the 1990 class, but the 1991 class brings up the slack in the bottom five, giving each class five players in the top ten.

See you next month, when we do the 1992 recruiting class and take a look at players such as Antonio Banks, Bryan Still, and Torrian Gray.

To download the data in HTML (web page) format, go here:

http://www.techsideline.com/tslextra/issue022/1991RecruitingClass.htm

To download an MS Excel 97 spreadsheet containing all of the data and formulas that I have used here, go here:

http://www.techsideline.com/tslextra/issue022/1991RecruitingClass.xls

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