When Justin Fuente first took over as the Virginia Tech Hokies' head coach, Virginia Tech offered multiple players within a few days. Over the past couple of weeks, Fuente and his staff have likely been evaluating many recruits, but have been quiet in terms of offering high school players.
Five days into 2016, the Hokies made their first offer of the new year.
The Virginia Tech Hokies extended an offer to three-star athlete and Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year Ty Pigrome of Clay-Chalkville High School in Pinson, Alabama was offered by Holmon Wiggins and Virginia Tech. Pigrome is ranked as the 66th best athlete and 33rd best Alabama recruit by the 247 Sports Composite while Rivals has him as Alabama's 24th best recruit in the Class of 2016.
Pigrome has told us that he plans to take official visits to Tulane on January 15th, Virginia Tech on January 22nd, and Purdue on January 29th. He also said that those three schools are not the only schools still under consideration on him, and is keeping things open with National Signing Day a month away.
When asked about whether the offer surprised him, Pigrome told us that it "kind of did cause I didn't expect the call this morning."
Pigrome said that the Hokies are open to using him as a quarterback or slot wide receiver. Pigrome is a very talented athlete that has been a highly successful dual-threat quarterback, but he is undersized for the position at 5'11'', and the Hokies already have an incoming freshman QB in Joshua Jackson along with JUCO QB Jerod Evans.
Ty Pigrome has great speed and acceleration to give him great potential at the slot wide receiver position as someone that could be quite good on quick slants, zig, and out routes depending on the development of his route-running skills.
As a quarterback, Pigrome is risky as few QBs under 6 feet have had success, but many spread offenses have opened the door for shorter, mobile quarterbacks to make plays if they have the talent. Pigrome has put up the numbers to prove that he might be able to be a really good quarterback, while 247 Sports' rates his intangibles as 9 out of 10 which is quite good.
Pigrome's relationship with possible position coach Holmon Wiggins extends from Wiggins's time at Memphis, which could prove beneficial given the prowess of Virginia Tech in the ACC compared to Memphis in the AAC. Virginia Tech also offers the best combination of coaching stability and national recognition of Pigrome's three official visits with Purdue's Darrell Hazell on the hot seat and Tulane being in the AAC.
However, it is hard to tell where Ty Pigrome is leaning at this point with Missouri also being a potential serious contender as the only SEC school with an offer from the table. At this point, Pigrome's recruitment seems fairly wide open, but the Hokies are definitely in the hunt.
1/11/16 Update: Gerry Hamilton of ESPN confirms that Pigrome will visit Tulane on January 15th and Virginia Tech on January 22nd. However, Pigrome will visit Maryland instead of Purdue on January 29th.
https://twitter.com/HamiltonESPN/status/686611778105700354
With Maryland now in the hunt, the Hokies have a more serious challenger with D.J. Durkin being a very talented recruiter and Maryland not being certain that Dwayne Haskins will stay committed with the Terps. If Haskins does stick with Maryland, Virginia Tech likely becomes the slight favorite once again to get the Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year though Maryland and Tulane can't be ruled out.
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