In all the years the Hokie Huddler has been covering VT recruiting, and in all the hype and hoopla surrounding recruiting, only twice has the Huddler printed "Best Year Ever?" on its cover when discussing a recruiting class. One of those years was 1998. The other was 1994.

Time will probably prove the question to be true about the 1998 class, because it featured record-setting megastars Michael Vick and Lee Suggs, plus solid players in Willie Pile, Anthony Davis, Jake Grove, Jake Houseright, Emmett Johnson, Grant Noel, Lamar Cobb, and Ronyell Whitaker. That group had so many letters, starts, and led VT in so many statistical categories that when it comes time to compile their accomplishments, the points will ring up at a fast and furious pace.

Add in the record-setting performances by Michael Vick and Lee Suggs, whose names dominate the Big East Football record book, and that 1998 class, when we tally them up, will blow away the other classes.

The 1994 recruiting class, however, was most certainly not VT's "Best Year Ever". They were a very, very solid class, and as you'll see, they do indeed lead the five classes we've rated so far in terms of "points per player."

But the class only places one player in our top ten so far, and that's Ken Oxendine, squeaking in at #10, displacing J.C. Price from our list. The 1994 class was long on linemen and short on the sex appeal of skill position players, and the perception of this class is dimmed by its highest profile players -- Al Clark, Ken Oxendine, and Marcus Parker -- being the team leaders of the 1997 Hokie club that went 7-5, tanked the end of that season, and got blown out in the 1997 Gator Bowl, 42-3, by UNC.

This class doesn't have the zing of a DeShazo, Druckenmiller, Vick, or Suggs. Its best players, the three mentioned above, were solid pluggers but nothing spectacular, and in fact, Clark and Oxendine never set the world on fire like people thought they would when they signed with Tech back in 1994.

Even worse, this 1994 recruiting class brought in two players responsible for the biggest PR nightmare to ever hit Virginia Tech football. The names Tony Morrison and James Crawford will be forever remembered for their alleged rape of Christy Brzonkala, and the long, public, ugly court battles that ensued. Morrison and Crawford will never be remembered for their accomplishments on the football field, but rather, for the Brzonkala affair.

But this "Inside the Numbers" series doesn�t deal with perception. It doesn�t care how hyped Oxendine, Clark, and Morrison were coming out of high school, and it doesn't care what happened between Morrison, Crawford, and Brzonkala.

What this series does care about is letters, starts, stat leaders, and draft choices, and this class fared well in those areas. Clark, Oxendine, and Parker were all big contributors and team leaders, and nearly one-third of this smallish class -- only 18 players in all -- got drafted by the NFL.

Why so much hype around this 1994 recruiting class? For starters, Morrison and Oxendine were both ranked in the Roanoke Times top 5, and that was the first time in 15 years that VT had landed two top-5 players. The Hokies beat out UVa and WVU for a number of players, and for other recruits, they fought off N.C. State, Georgia Tech, and Boston College. At the time, all five of those programs were superior to the Hokies, who had just gone to their first bowl game in seven years, and beating those other programs for recruits was a big deal.

Having said all that, let's see how the players and the class as a whole rank in our system. First, we'll review the scoring system, then we'll present the rankings of this class. We'll discuss its highlights and lowlights, and then we'll compare it to the other four classes we've ranked so far.

Note: the recruit ranking system was introduced in TSL Extra #21 (July 24, 2002). To learn how it works and how points are awarded, see the Inside the Numbers article from that issue.

In an effort to numerically rate the "success" of a recruiting class, both as individuals and as a team, I created a detailed point system that awards points for individual accomplishments and team accomplishments. I created a large table of "accomplishments" that players and recruiting classes could achieve, and then awarded points to players and classes that achieved those objectives.

Individual players, for example, can earn varsity letters, set records, become All-Americans, and get drafted by the NFL. Recruiting classes can win games, go to bowls, and obtain Top 25 rankings.

Here is a list of how many points are awarded for what accomplishments, both individual and team:

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 in TSL Extra issue #21.

As we do for each of these articles, here's 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 1994 recruiting class, and how many points each player scored in the TSL Extra system:

Ken Oxendine (TB, 37 points): Lettered four years; started two years; led VT in rushing in 1996 and 1997; led VT in scoring in 1996; led the Big East in scoring in 1996; All-Big East first team in 1996, All-Big East second team in 1997; drafted in the 7th round in 1998 by Atlanta.

Derek Smith (OL, 26 points): Lettered three years; started two years; third-team All-American by the Football News in 1998; All-Big East second team in 1998; drafted in the 5th round in 1999 by Washington.

Al Clark (QB, 24 points): Lettered four years; started two years; led VT in both passing and total offense in 1997 and 1998.

Gennaro Dinapoli (OL, 22 points): Lettered four years; started three years; All-Big East first team in 1997; drafted in the fourth round in 1998 by Oakland.

Todd Washington (OL, 19 points): Lettered three years; started two years; All-Big East first team in 1997; drafted in the fourth round in 1998 by Tampa Bay.

In terms of team accomplishments, the 1994 recruiting class wins points for what the team accomplished in the 1995-1998 seasons. These accomplishments are:

The 29.33 points-per-player average are the best so far among the five recruiting classes reviewed (1990-94).

So far, with three classes in the books, here's how they stack up against each other:

The 1990 class continues to be the big dog in terms of individual points -- points garnered by individual achievements, not team achievements -- but you can see the 1994 class is in-line with the classes of 1991-1993, with about 10 "individual" points scored per player.

The 1994 class also has a comparable number of team points when compared to the 1992 and 1993 classes.

The reason why the 1994 class pulls ahead in the points-per-player race is, of course, because they only had 18 players. That increases the points-per-player quotient contributed by the team points.

If the 1994 class had 20 players in it -- assuming there were just two more players who were flops that didn't even letter -- it would have finished behind both the 1992 and 1993 classes in points-per-player.

Here are some other benchmarks and how this class compares to earlier classes rated.

Here are some interesting points about this class:

• Of the classes reviewed so far, this class had the lowest number of players who never lettered. Only three players from the 1994 class never earned a letter at VT. The 1990-1993 classes had five, seven, six, and six non-lettering players, respectively.

• The 1994 class had the highest number of NFL draftees so far, with five: Gennaro Dinapoli, Ken Oxendine, Marcus Parker, Derek Smith, and Todd Washington.

• Despite having the fewest players of all the recruiting classes mentioned so far, the 1994 class had more players score 10 or more individual points -- seven -- than any of the other classes.

• Of this 1994 class, four of the top seven players were offensive linemen. This is highly unusual, because of all the positions, it is the most difficult for offensive linemen to score points in this ranking system. If you did this ranking exercise for another fifty years, you would probably never see this happen again.

Five classes into our rankings now, here is our top ten list. From this class, only Ken Oxendine cracked the top ten, and he barely squeaked in.

The 1990 class is still well-represented in the top ten, with four players. 1991 has two in the top ten, 1992 has two, 1993 has one, and 1994 has one.

See you next installment, when we rate a 1995 recruiting class that, on paper, was a disaster. It included just two players from the Roanoke Times Top 25, and not a single offensive lineman. How did it pan out? We'll find out in our next installment.

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

http://subscription.techsideline.com/tslpass/2003/1994RecruitingClass.htm

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

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