It seems that a number of subscribers had some issues with part 1, which graded the offensive recruiting. Most readers understandably want to see higher grades. If that's the case, you'll be pleased with the way I view this defensive recruiting class, which is deep and talented at almost every part of the defense.

I'll admit that I thought a little harder this time around and tried to be more consistent with my grading. As with the offensive grading article, I attempted to project needs, then evaluate how those needs were met. This type of analysis assumes that all players will stay in the program and develop to their recruiting potential, which is of course silly. Developing 85 football players is like herding cats: some of them will go in the direction you want, but many will not, and you'll lose a few.

It's an interesting exercise nonetheless, and the fun thing about doing these articles is that it really brings you up to speed on the roster as a whole, and where the strengths and weaknesses of the team are.

We'll start with the guys up front.

The DL: The Hokies are in pretty good shape on the DL, though not quite as deep as they were in 2004. Chris Ellis was listed as a Stud End behind Noland Burchette in the last BeamerBall.com depth chart, but he may move to End for 2005. At the two end spots, the Hokies will only go 3 deep (Tapp, Burchette, and Ellis), not 4-5 deep, as they did in 2004. Jonathan Lewis and Carlton Powell will be a formidable starting set of tackles, and if Powell and Lewis both step up their play, they could be as good in 2005 as Lewis and Jim Davis were in 2004. Kory Robertson and Barry Booker both need to improve their technique and continue to get stronger in order to provide depth at DT like what the Hokies had in 2004.

Landing Maryland signee Melvin Alaeze at DE would have been very, very, very nice, but after the dust settled, the Hokies did well. VT is losing two DEs after the 2005 season, and they recruited two good ones in Steven Friday and William Wall. As a Hargrave-honed player, four-star recruit Wall may play this fall, supplanting Trott on the depth chart and giving the Hokies their desired five-man DE rotation of Tapp-Burchette-Ellis-Wall-Trott. At 6-5, 215, Friday is almost 100% sure to redshirt. If the Hokies recruit two DE's like Friday and Wall every year, and the regular attrition of about 50% occurs, they could consistently have a good four-man rotation, with a fifth player for additional depth/injury insurance.

At the tackle slots, the Hokies also did very well. Cordarrow Thompson and Hiveria Green aren't heavy on the star ratings, both coming in at three stars, but they'll have plenty of time to develop behind 2005 sophomores Powell, Booker, and Robertson. Sergio Render is a nice addition, though his speed (5.2 forty) could be a problem, and he might ultimately wind up on the OL (which is where FSU, the place that Render originally verballed, wanted to put him). However they fall out, the Hokies have plenty of bodies at defensive tackle and should be able to maintain a four-man rotation for the next few years.

DL Recruiting Grade: A-. The depth and quality of the players VT recruited on the DL are very good. The only thing that keeps me from assigning an A here is that the DT depth versus the DE depth is a little unbalanced, with 8 DTs and 6 DEs on the roster next fall � but if you slot Green as a DE instead of a DT, that nitpick disappears, so we'll see. The only other thing keeping me from assigning a straight A is the lack of a 4-star or better at DT. But overall, very well done, despite the loss of Alaeze to the Terps.

The Linebackers

The Linebackers: The Hokies are in very good shape at linebacker for the 2005 season. The two-deep rotation returns nearly intact, losing only Mikal Baaqee. Chad Cooper and Brandon Manning will be gone as well, but they were used sparingly. Andrew Bowman will come off a redshirt year to replace Baaqee in the rotation, unless he is challenged by Brett Warren in the spring. Corey Gordon is going to be moved from free safety to Whip (perhaps -- see the Rover discussion later), where he'll get practice time and some light rotation behind James Anderson and Aaron Rouse. Purnell Sturdivant is a man in search of a position and could wind up at Whip or Backer.

How VT Met Their LB Needs: The Hokies would like to recruit one Mike/Backer pair in the mold of Adibi and Hall every year, and they nailed it this year with Demetrius Taylor and Top-100 linebacker Deveon Simmons (Simmons may not qualify, which would require him spending a year at FUMA or Hargrave, but he is perceived as being locked down by VT if that does happen, and he will wind up in Blacksburg nonetheless). The Hokies got Andrew Bowman and Brett Warren last year, and Taylor and Simmons this year, so it's all going according to plan. There are currently six players at the Mike/Backer positions that will be in Blacksburg together for three more seasons (2005-2007), spearheaded by Adibi/Hall.

At Whip, there really was no need to recruit players, with Rouse, Gordon, and Sturdivant in the fold already. With the Whip turning into more of a classic linebacker, as opposed to a linebacker/safety hybrid, you could see Taylor or Simmons winding up there, as well.

With just a moderate amount of "need" at the linebacker positions, the Hokies nonetheless shoved two very good prospects into the pipeline in Taylor and Simmons. If Simmons is unable to make it to Blacksburg in the fall of 2005 and � for whatever reason � falls by the wayside after that, it will damage the 2005 LB recruiting greatly, but assuming he qualifies, either now or later, this is an excellent linebacker recruiting class.

LB Recruiting Grade: A

The Defensive Backfield

The Cornerbacks: The Hokies take a hit at one corner spot, where they lose Eric Green, the highest-rated Hokie (pre-Combine) for the NFL Draft this April. VT got a much-needed lift when Jimmy Williams, long considered a three-years-and-done player, decided to hang around for a fourth year of eligibility. Williams, good in coverage and superb in run support, will be a strong candidate for the Jim Thorpe Award next year and will anchor a Hokie defensive backfield that lost its other three starters (Green, FS Vinnie Fuller, and ROV James Griffin).

Roland Minor, who got 151 regular-season snaps as a nickel corner, will most likely be elevated to starter, where he'll get a lot of attention from QBs as they throw away from Williams. Brandon Flowers, who picked off a pass for a TD against Western Michigan last season, missed most of the season due to injury and took a medical redshirt, and he and D.J. Parker are expected to be the backups to Williams and Minor. The Hokies will be inexperienced at cornerback, and the hope is that the strong front seven for VT can mask that inexperience.

To be blunt, Chris Caesar and Brian McPherson, who combined for 28 special teams snaps and zero snaps from scrimmage last year as redshirt sophomores, will probably never factor into the two-deep at CB for Tech.

How VT Met Their CB Needs: The Hokies scored in quantity (up to four CBs signed: Victor Harris, Jahre Cheeseman, Dorian Porch, and Stephan Virgil) and quality (Victor Harris is a five-star, and the other three guys are all three-stars). Harris is a guy who can play right away, a la DeAngelo Hall in 2001, and the other three guys are all speedsters listed in the 4.4-forty range, led by Cheeseman's 4.37, as hand-timed by his high school coach. VT will get at least two serviceable-to-good cornerbacks out of this class, maybe more, including a guy (Harris) who can play right away. You can't do much better than that.

I could nitpick and point out that with the exception of Harris (6-0), the CB recruits are all 5-11 or shorter, but 5-11 is plenty tall enough to be a good cornerback in college. If these guys can change direction as well as they run in a straight line, the Hokies have a nice group of CBs to develop.

CB Recruiting Grade: A.

Free Safety and Rover: Things are looking very dicey here for 2005. There are eight players listed at these two positions, but there isn't a lick of experience among the octet. (You like that? I had to think about that for a second.) Three of the players � D.J. Walton, Brenden Hill, and Cary Wade � are likely playing out the string in their careers. Two more � Justin Hamilton and Robert Parker � have switched positions and have very short time frames, particularly Hamilton, to pick up what's going on. Parker is promising physically, at 6-1, 213, and an Iron Man winner. The other three � Theo Miller, Kent Hicks, and Michael Hinton (if his unofficial reinstatement to the team sticks) � are good prospects physically but haven't played a single down of Virginia Tech football. Yikes.

The wild card at Rover, in addition to Robert Parker, could be Corey Gordon. Gordon is currently listed on BeamerBall.com as a free safety, but there has been talk of moving him to Whip, which is where we included him in this analysis. But don't be surprised if Gordon makes the move to Rover when all is said and done. The addition of Gordon to the Rover depth chart, where a talented player is needed more than at Whip, would brighten the Rover situation greatly -- if Gordon can be good at the position.

Purnell Sturdivant also has Rover potential, so the Hokies have more options than what is listed on the depth chart above. But don't expect to see both Sturdivant and Gordon move to Rover, because that would empty out the Whip depth chart underneath Anderson and Rouse.

How VT Met Their Free Safety and Rover Needs: It's hard to say, because we don't know what the needs are. If Hinton stays and he, Hicks, and Miller all turn into very good players, the need isn't as acute as it is if all three of them are busts, or something in between. Cameron Martin is a very good safety prospect, but the problem is that there's no Rover depth beyond Hinton, whose future is iffy. (Hinton has rejoined the team from the standpoint that he is attending meetings and such, but he has not been officially announced as a Hokie again, and his "probationary period" might last all through the spring and summer.)

The problem is that Hicks and Miller are likely to stay planted at free safety, because Hicks struggled with the Rover position last fall, and Miller (listed at 6-2, 176) isn't likely to get big and physical enough to be a Rover. Cam Martin (6-1, 180) physically isn't Rover material either, unless he can put on about 30 pounds and keep his speed. So at Rover, it's Hinton or bust, unless Parker can come on strong or Gordon gets moved to Rover.

I like Cam Martin, but I would feel much more comfortable if a Rover type had been recruited with him. But with all the DBs available, perhaps a Rover will fall out of the sky to help provide depth. Martin may be all the Hokies needed, in which case this makes this Rover/FS class a solid B or B+. But we can't tell at this point, and my inclination is to think that another Rover type was needed, despite the fact that nine players will be crammed on the roster at these two positions when Martin arrives in the fall.

Rover/Free Safety Recruiting Grade: B-

The defense graded out higher than the offense did, and as a matter of fact, graded out very well.

• DL Recruiting Grade: A-
• LB Recruiting Grade: A
• CB Recruiting Grade: A
• Rover/FS Recruiting Grade: B-

The breadth of the class is commendable -- the Hokies recruited multiple players at each position, with the exception of Rover/Free Safety, and each part of the defense -- the DL, the LBs, and the DBs -- includes at least one four-star or five-star player. Four-star and five-star players have all-conference potential (okay, everybody does, but for now, we have to talk about star ratings and how guys look "on paper"), and if you could recruit one of those at each of the three parts of the defense each year, you would soon have a deep, talented team. That kind of balance makes for a great team, and on paper, the Hokies have recruited that kind of balance on defense this year.

The lack of a highly-touted (four- or five-star) defensive tackle and the lack of more depth at Rover/free safety is all that prevents me from giving the Hokies a full-blown A here.

• Defensive Recruiting Grade: A-