BLACKSBURG, Va. — While signing day went off without a hitch for Virginia Tech, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some nervous moments leading up to it.
Several schools out there went hard after a few Hokies commitments. New Nebraska coach Matt Rhule made a show of making his first offer on the job to cornerback Dante Lovett. North Carolina was all over cornerback Cam Fleming in the final two weeks. And Florida State made a late push for linebacker Caleb Woodson.
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None of them budged.
“Some of them had other head coaches sitting on their couch in their living room,” Hokies coach Brent Pry said. “Some of them, you had a new head coach in the Big Ten celebrating, ‘This is our first offer, a Virginia Tech commitment!’ And it went as far as guys had graphics of taking official visits to other places, which they never did.
“Just a lot goes into it, so it’s easy to get excited when they jump on there and they’re signed, sealed and delivered.”
After a showy signing day ceremony, the hay is in the barn now, with Pry finalizing his first full class with the Hokies, a group that ranks 35th in the 247Sports Composite and sixth in the ACC, not far from Virginia Tech’s historical norm. There are 25 high school signees, plus four transfer additions.
There were no last-second decommitments or signing day swings and misses, a welcome change from recent years, and the Hokies even had a few surprises up their sleeves for the public, with a pair of transfers, defensive end Darian Varner and receiver Da’Quan Felton, and high school safety Mose Phillips announcing their intentions to sign with Tech on Wednesday.
Here are some key takeaways from signing day:
Competing in the commonwealth
Virginia Tech’s class has a distinctly Virginia flavor to it, with 16 of the 29 total signees having played their high school ball in the commonwealth.
“It’s infectious,” Pry said. “I think they appreciate that we’re trying to do this with guys from our footprint, and specifically with guys from the state of Virginia. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to sign some guys from outside — we did, and we will — but an emphasis on homegrown talent.
“And those guys are going to know each other from tournaments and playing one another and growing up in Pee Wee ball and different things. Their parents, especially, have an appreciation for where Virginia Tech’s been, and they understand what this program can be.”
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That’s not to say the Hokies landed top local talent, as ranked by the recruiting sites, in Virginia. The highest-ranked in-state signee Tech had was cornerback Antonio Cotman Jr., the 16th-ranked player in the 247Sports Composite. In fact, 12 of the high school signees from Virginia were ranked 20th or lower in the state, with Penn State (six of the top 10) and North Carolina (five of the top 20) at the forefront of the poachers.
But getting the Hokies back in good standing with the top-tier prospects is a process, one Pry and his staff set about remedying last winter, with travel clinics in hotbed areas around the state and meet-and-greets to show high school coaches that Tech, which had lost some standing within the borders under Justin Fuente, was being genuine. In the spring, the Hokies made a point of hitting every school in the state.
“We want to take care of the state and the kids because that’s how we’re going to get back to where it was back in the day,” senior director of player personnel Mike Villagrana said.
The results were positive, particularly around Richmond, receivers coach Fontel Mines’ territory, where Tech landed seven prospects — eight if you include ODU transfer Ali Jennings III. The Hokies signed pairs of players from two state powerhouse high schools: Highland Springs (safety Braylon Johnson and receiver Takye Heath) and Appomattox (receiver Jonathan Pennix and linebacker Tavorian Copeland).
Pry thinks Tech secured commitments early from some undervalued players in the state who had strong senior seasons, which helped the Hokies fend off late challengers once their recruitment heated up
“We came in here talking a big game about recruiting this state,” he said. “I think in this cycle, they understand we meant it. … So the investment’s real. It’s there. And I believe we can win an ACC championship with this formula. We just know more about these guys. And I tell the staff all the time: Nobody can know more about the kids in Virginia than us.”
Virginia Tech added Baylor transfer QB Kyron Drones. (Jerome Miron / USA Today)Four transfers at critical spots
The Hokies ended up adding four transfers in the early period who should reshape competitions at their respective positions — quarterback Kyron Drones out of Baylor, defensive lineman Darian Varner out of Temple and receivers Jennings and Felton from ODU and Norfolk State, respectively.
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The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Drones was Tech’s top transfer quarterback target. The Hokies had circled him as a possibility before he went in the portal, so once he officially put his name out there, offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen had done his homework and was the first coach Drones welcomed on an in-home visit.
“He’s a triple-threat guy,” Pry said. “Really high football IQ, great wheels and can spin it. He’s got all the attributes we were wanting. … We needed somebody to come in here and compete with Grant (Wells). We’ve got to be better at that position. This guy’s going to make Grant better. He’s going to make us better. We’ll have a good look at things this spring.”
Varner is a 6-foot-2, 280-pound first-team All-AAC pick from Temple, where he had 7.5 sacks last year. The Hokies locked up his commitment late Tuesday night, springing it as a surprise on signing day. He didn’t garner much Power 5 attention coming out of Maury High in Norfolk in 2019, ranked as the 29th player in the state, but Pry said he was the heart and soul of a 15-0 state championship team down there. He’ll likely play tackle with the Hokies.
“We really like the way he rushes the quarterback,” Pry said. “He’s a twitchy guy, and particularly when he gets closer to the football, he was a problem for people.”
Jennings and Felton help remake a receiver room that added seven new players in all Wednesday, shoring up a group that lost last year’s leading pass-catcher Kaleb Smith to Notre Dame. Jennings averaged over 1,000 yards and caught 14 touchdown passes the past two seasons at ODU, despite missing three games at the end of last year with an injury.
“He offers consistency,” Mines said. “He’s confident. He’s a leader. More than anything, I think he’s going to push these guys on and off the field. He’s going to make sure those guys are doing extra. He’s going to challenge them whenever they need to be challenged.”
Felton is a bigger-bodied receiver that Tech’s lacked in recent years, listed at 6-foot-5, 210 pounds. The Portsmouth product is a former basketball player who didn’t start playing football until his junior year, earning a camp offer from Norfolk State, where he caught 67 passes for 1,062 yards and nine touchdowns the past two years, with seven scores last season.
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“This is a guy who’s going to bring a different demeanor from what we have,” Mines said. “I think he’s proven. I think he is confident. And I think he has a chip on his shoulder. He has that mentality to play this position at a high level.”
Plenty of new faces at quarterback
In addition to Drones, the Hokies signed two high school quarterbacks, bringing Dylan Wittke and Pop Watson into the fold.
Drones immediately enters the battle for the starting spot, with Wittke, an early commitment from a powerhouse Georgia program in Buford, and Watson, a scintillating late addition out of Massachusetts who flipped from Nebraska earlier this month, getting into the developmental pipeline.
“It’s not easy,” Pry said of the juggling act of adding three quarterbacks in a class. “I thought it was tough when we got Jason (Brown) and Grant last year at the same time. But now we got a third guy in the mix. Again, it’s about being transparent and open and honest and having conversations ahead of time. This is why we’re making this decision. We want to reach out and make sure you hear it from us first. This is what’s behind it.
“I’m not going to say there wasn’t concerns and there wasn’t conversations that had to be had, but most times you can work through those things, and we’re able to do that with those guys. And you want guys that want to compete. I don’t want somebody that’s afraid of competition. These guys we’re recruiting, that’s an important trait that we’re always looking for.”
All three will enroll in January, adding some juice to spring ball at the position.
“That quarterback room’s going to look a little different right out of the gate come January 18th,” Pry said.
Deep class at defensive back and receiver
Last year, the Hokies beefed up on both lines, signing 12 players who played in the trenches. This time around, the focus was more on the perimeter, with Tech signing seven defensive backs and seven receivers, some with positional versatility to possibly end up on either side of the ball.
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“The good thing about that position is they have the same qualities,” Mines said. “You have ball skills, they’re usually pretty quick twitch, the short-area quickness. They can do a lot of different things with their bodies, so having those qualities is a plus for me. I love to see receivers play defense, especially in high school, show some physicality, show that they’ll play on special teams. It shows that they’ll block and find ways to contribute to the team.”
There’s a fairly even split between safeties (Johnson, Krystian Williams and Phillips) and cornerbacks (Lovett, Fleming, Cotman and Thomas Williams), though the Hokies’ preference is simply for players who can cover at any spot in the secondary — like last year with Mansoor Delane, who came in as a safety and ended up starting and thriving at cornerback.
“My background is man coverage, man-press coverage, aggressive.,” cornerbacks coach Derek Jones said. “You’ve got to be able to have people to do that. … What we sold them on is, we don’t necessarily recruit just corners and safeties. We recruit defensive backs. That’s why we call them ‘cheetahs.’
“What you want to do is you want to be able to get your secondary to the point where you’ve got guys with corner skills at every position. Because what offenses do is they try to attack you when you have weaknesses in coverage. We know all of these guys have the ability to cover.”
The receiver group rounded out late with the additions out of Tennessee of both Ayden Greene, a one-time Cincinnati commit, and Chance Fitzgerald. Though both are 6-foot-2, joining the 6-5 Felton, getting bigger wasn’t necessarily a primary objective of the Hokies coaches.
“More than anything, we wanted to get guys who had good production,” Mines said. “It just so happened to fall in place that we kind of killed two birds with one stone. Length offers the quarterback a little bit easier target. It helps the quarterback not have to be as accurate. You can win those jump balls, 80-20, is what I call it. There’s no such thing as 50-50. There’s 80-20 in my room. I think that’s definitely going to help us on the perimeter, being longer, being faster and being more consistent.”
Both Greene (1,127 yards, 19 TDs) and Fitzgerald (1,348 yards, 18 TDs) had monster senior seasons and could have the size to factor in right away. Meanwhile, guys like Heath, Pennix and Marcell Baylor showed plenty of versatility in high school, excelling on both sides of the ball.
Twenty-nine players signed with the Hokies on Wednesday. (Courtesy of Virginia Tech Athletics)Heading west into the Volunteer State
The Hokies did plenty of work in Tennessee in this class, an area that Tech hasn’t tapped into all that much in recent years, getting four signees from the Volunteer State.
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Offensive lineman Lance Williams, a Tennessee Mr. Football for his classification, was the first commitment in the class from Alcoa, south of Knoxville. Greene (Knoxville), Fitzgerald (Nashville) and Phillips (Nashville) all came on board this month.
Pry noted that Nashville is only a six-hour drive from Blacksburg, keeping it well within Tech’s footprint. But the staff has connections that way too, with defensive coordinator Chris Marve having played and coached at Vanderbilt, sam linebackers coach Shawn Quinn playing collegiately at Carson-Newman and with a number of past coaching jobs in Tennessee and Pry himself with stints at Memphis and Vanderbilt.
“It helps when you can go to an area and there’s a young man you’re interested in that you’re getting to know,” Pry said. “And you go down the road and there’s a coach you’ve known for 20 years and you can say, ‘Tell me about that guy.’ And he says, ‘Coach, that’s a heck of a ball player. I had him in an all-star game’ or ‘I coached him at camp’ or ‘I went to college with his mom and dad.’ Those are the relationships that are meaningful, when you can get as much information about a guy to make sure you’re taking the right kid, that you’re doing the right thing.”
The Hokies didn’t venture west into Tennessee often in the latter Beamer years and signed just five players from the state during Justin Fuente’s six seasons, most notably linebacker Jaden Keller in 2021.
A big group of early enrollees
The Hokies have 15 players who will enroll in January, with 11 from the high school ranks and all four the transfers.
The high schoolers are Watson and Wittke at quarterback, running back Jeremiah Coney, Greene and Baylor at receiver, offensive lineman Layth Ghannam, Hannes Hammer and Williams, defensive end Ishmael Findlayter and Cotman and Phillips at defensive back.
Pry said the Hokies are still pursuing some transfers in the first week of January who could still be spring semester enrollees, with three on the docket to make official visits as of now.
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“We still have a couple needs we’re trying to fill,” he said.
What are the Hokies looking for in the transfer market?
Pry said Tech has three or four spots it’s looking to bolster. They include:
• A defensive end: With Varner likely to play tackle, Tech has a need on the edge, especially with last year’s top pass rusher, TyJuan Garbutt, graduating. “I’d like to get a bona fide pass rusher off the edge, a proven guy that can win more one-on-one battles,” Pry said. “Obviously, we think our guys can continue to develop, the young guys in our program. But at the same time, we have to be better in that area.”
• A running back: Malachi Thomas is back, but he’s coming off an injury-plagued season, and Tech struggled to run the ball physically with anybody else. “We’re looking for possibly a running back to come in and compete with Malachi and Chance (Black) and those guys and make that room better,” Pry said.
• An offensive lineman: The Hokies have 16 in the room right now, but only one is a senior (Jesse Hanson) and only three more have junior designations (Kaden Moore, Parker Clements and Bob Schick). After veterans Hanson, Moore and Clements, the most experienced linemen on the roster are Schick (58 snaps) and a pair of freshmen, Braelin Moore (81) and Xavier Chaplin (27).
• Another defensive back: Though Tech did plenty of work restocking the defensive backfield, Pry wants a bridge between the vets and youngsters. “There’s a little bit of a gap between the old guys and this group,” he said. “So a guy that can supply some depth and come in and be a rotational guy, give us a chance to develop this young group.”
Roster odds and ends
The Hokies now have six confirmed seniors who are taking advantage of their additional year of eligibility from the COVID-19 season. Tight end Nick Gallo, linebacker Alan Tisdale and safety Nasir Peoples had previously announced they’d come back. Tech has also gotten confirmation from defensive tackle Mario Kendricks and defensive end Pheldarius Payne, a Nebraska transfer who missed last year with an Achilles injury, that they’ll return.
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Virginia Tech is hopeful to get defensive tackle Norell Pollard back too, though nothing’s been finalized on that front. All six could reasonably be considered starting candidates next season.
Receiver and ACC champion sprinter Cole Beck will run track again this spring, then see how things how shake out before a determination is made about his football career. If he does return, likely in a special teams capacity, he wouldn’t be on scholarship, though he’s marketable enough that Tech could pursue NIL opportunities for him.
Zeke Wimbush, a versatile tight end who committed out of Stone Bridge High in Ashburn earlier this week, plans to enroll this summer but will likely not immediately be on scholarship. The plans are for him to go on scholarship in January of 2024, though how the numbers shake out could push up those plans. (As someone who’s technically coming in as a walk-on, the Hokies couldn’t comment publicly on him, thus his absence from Wednesday’s signing day fanfare.)
Unofficially, all the recent movement puts the Hokies at 92 scholarship players, a figure that will need to be trimmed significantly to get to the 85 maximum scholarship number, especially if Tech has designs on adding more transfers next month.
(Top photo: Courtesy of Virginia Tech Athletics)
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