There have been plenty of questions about Dematrius Davis's recent removal of any reference to Virginia Tech
from his Twitter bio. For the most part, I've shrugged them off: it's pretty typical (not universal, of course, but certainly not out of the norm) that prospects don't refer to their future programs in that context, and he's still been openly recruiting other prospects to Blacksburg using social media and other avenues.
The name of the job is to do the due diligence, though, and after asking a number of folks in the Lone Star State, well... there are some queasy feelings.
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Trying to corroborate with folks in Blacksburg drew no comment - and when there's the opportunity to nip a rumor in the bud and keep the narrative positive, a "no comment" might as well stand in for a negative one. Certainly thanks to my skepticism about the wisdom of relying on a Texas recruiting base is going to have me brushed off on this topic in particular more often than average, but controlling the narrative from the football office is an important part of the gig, so sometimes a
lack of activity when there's a chance to keep that narrative positive... well, it can speak volumes.
Going back to Davis. I wouldn't guarantee that a flip happens, but there is one SEC school that's getting plenty of warm fuzzies from the four-star quarterback. The coronavirus shutdown has been a blessing (no visits to other programs) and a curse (a bit of wanderlust can set in alongside that cabin fever) for the Hokies in this regard. That said, the staff is going to work hard to make sure the situation remains in their favor. Sometimes, these things are unavoidable when they get to a certain point, and it's the staff's crucial task to make sure that point isn't reached.
To add (hypothetical) insult to injury, should anything happen with Davis's commitment, there's a pretty good - let's call it 100% or so - chance that his close friend Latrell Neville would also hit the open market, if not immediately flip to the same SEC program in question. While he's a fan of Virginia Tech and the Hokies' coaching staff, his strongest connection has always been through Davis. If there's no Davis in Blacksburg, the chances that Neville ends up there are slim.
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I'll keep monitoring the situation, but folks in Houston seem to think this is headed in just one direction, and we may not have to wait long to see it unfortunately go that way.
If it does... suddenly the 2021 recruiting class would look like one off to the same start as the 2020 group. There's a much better chance to improve the attention from elite prospects with a strong product on the field, of course, but a second iffy recruiting class in a row probably couldn't be survived.
