The Hokies hosted a number of top targets in Blacksburg last weekend - and while this weekend's visitors list will be even
more impressive, there's plenty to look forward to from those guys who managed to make their way to town shortly after the end of the Dead Period.
While it may seem a bit of a disappointment that the Orange and Maroon didn't land any commitments, I would urge you to not sweat it a bit. For a number of players, the Hokies set the bar. Penn State (the only of his other finalists still seriously recruiting him) would have to impress the hell out of in-state OL Gunner Givens to pull him away from VT at this point. Virginia Tech really made an impression on Ohio TE Charlie Kenrich. The list goes on and on.
And that's not even the most significant part. There are some players who may very well have chosen to commit if they weren't intent on going through a couple more visits to have something to compare to, or if the Hokies had been ready to really push for a pledge.
It was not a coincidence that Highland Springs (Va.) defensive lineman Rashaud Pernell announced the cancellation of his visit to Wake Forest - which had been previously scheduled for this weekend. I hinted at it in
the interview I did with him, and he made the news public a couple days later. That said, it's not the
whole story: his trip to Winston-Salem had been off for a little while (and the decision to cancel wasn't necessarily one he made against the protestations of the Wake Forest staff). He's still planning to see Minnesota in a couple weeks. But the Hokies' fates after that point are almost certainly in their own hands. If the staff wants to land a commitment from him, they'll know the right buttons to push, and their button-pushin' fingers can be hovering not so far from them.
Another player with whom the visit went a long way is defensive tackle Malachi Madison. The former (and future) Chester (Va.) Thomas Dale standout who played in Georgia for his junior year also had a great trip. As with Pernell, an eventual commitment is probably more about timing and the staff choosing to escalate from "he is a take" to "it is time" to make things happen. Right now, they're very happy sitting in pole position without an urgency to make things happen. It doesn't sound like that will change until they see where things go with upcoming visitors.
Alabama WR Marquarius White is the only guy I haven't received a ton of feedback about. I remain skeptical that an Alabama kid with an offer from the Tide is really going to head to Virginia Tech for his college ball at this point, and that vibe is only enhanced by the low amount of feedback that sources have shared about that visit.
I'll wrap up with a couple of legacy prospects. Tyler Banks - who is a cousin of outgoing LB Rayshard Ashby - was close to committing last Fall, then the staff wasn't sure where it stood on his talent, so things cooled off in a hurry. The fact that he took an official visit indicates they're warming back up to him, but it's unclear to me (and I'll continue digging, of course) just how serious the staff is about him. He's got the profile of a "if he commits on the visit, great, if not, it's a return to the back-burner" style of recruit. The staff is clearly evaluating and pursuing linebacker prospects harder now than they had been even in very recent weeks, so that could open the door a bit.
VT legacy Bryson Jennings has long seemed like a UVa lean, despite his family ties. The Hoos offered first, and although he's the son of former VT tight end Bryan Jennings (also the head coach at Midlothian (Va.) Clover Hill), Virginia had been able to keep up the heat in a way that kept the family high on a school that... wasn't exactly the favorite they felt in their hearts. The twist, of course, is that Jennings has a few characteristics that can obscure how exactly he's feeling at a given time, including but not limited to keeping fairly quiet when it comes to interviews and the like. When your dad is a former NFL player and your high school coach, the dog-and-pony show doesn't really need to be part of the process that you deal with, and Jennings doesn't. The fact that the Hokies feel like they knocked the visit out of the park is good, and particularly when you consider that this staff has done particularly well with legacy prospects, those whose dads are former NFL players, and the sons of coaches... the impression is that a swing strongly in VT's favor is under way. We shall see exactly how strongly when Jennings's visit trail continues.
I'll continue providing interviews with the players who have recently visited in the coming days, but after a couple pretty enlightening conversations, I thought it'd definitely be prudent to give y'all the update that
isn't what the prospects themselves have to say directly, too.
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