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Virginia Tech Off to a Strong Start for Four-Star OT Antwan Reed

Antwan Reed Recruitment Photo 1 1
[caption id="attachment_5564" align="aligncenter" width="701"] 4* OT Antwan Reed gives us insight into his recruitment. [Credit: @antwan_reed (Twitter)][/caption]After taking a smaller class of offensive line with only three true offensive line commits (Silas Dzansi, Aiden Brown, Christian Darrisaw) in the Class of 2017, the Virginia Tech Hokies seem set to put an emphasis on bringing in a larger offensive line class in the 2018 cycle. One of those players is four-star OT Antwan Reed out of Muskegon High School in Muskegon, Michigan (same place as Kalil Pimpleton) who the Hokies have had around the top of their offensive line board at least since they offered him last April. Reed only has 7 offers so far but that may be partly because the schools that have offered him are some heavy hitters that many power 5 schools know they likely couldn't compete against. Reed's impressive offer list of 7 schools includes Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Florida, and Tennessee. Reed is also rated as a four-star recruit by all major recruiting services with ESPN ranking him as the 232nd best junior in the nation, Rivals ranking him as the 193rd best junior, 247 Sports having him as the 294th best junior, and the 247 Sports Composite having him as the 327th best junior while all four of those rankings have him as one of the top 25 offensive tackles. On paper, Michigan and Michigan State are seen as potential favorites, but the Wolverines and Spartans may have a much harder time keeping him in-state especially with what Reed told us about how much interest he has in staying in-state, "I mean it doesn't really matter to me. It would be nice to be outside of home for a while." Those comments likely give teams like Virginia Tech, Penn State, Nebraska, Tennessee, Florida, and any other out-of-state school that hops in confidence that getting Reed out of Michigan may not be as hard of a task as it would seem to be on paper. Reed told us that he has visits scheduled soon to Penn State and Virginia Tech while he is also working to set up a visit to Nebraska. Reed told us that he doesn't currently have a leader or top group of schools in his recruitment with Reed telling us that he's currently leaning towards waiting on making a collegiate decision till after his senior season. However, there are a lot of signs that Virginia Tech has gotten off to a stronger start than the rest of the schools involved with Reed telling us that Virginia Tech is "by far" in contact with him the most while also saying that he feels he is building "an elite relationship." When asked which coaches among those recruiting him that Reed has the best relationship with, he had this to say.
I would have to say (Justin) Fuente and (Vance) Vice because they are always checking up on me, and we can really talk about how things are going even when it's not football talk.
So far, Virginia Tech has gotten off to a strong start in Reed's recruitment and based purely on what Reed told us, it would be hard to argue that anyone other than Virginia Tech is the favorite. The Hokies also have a former teammate of Reed's in Kalil Pimpleton and while that may help a little, Reed told us that he doesn't really see that having much more than a minor impact on his recruitment. Virginia Tech has gotten off to a great start, but there is no doubt that the Hokies have a lot of work ahead of them and with us being almost a year away from National Signing Day 2017, it's hard not to think that this will be a very competitive recruitment with Big 10 schools like Penn State and Nebraska looming large while Michigan and Michigan State are likely to be major players even if Reed's interest in staying in Michigan seems lukewarm at best currently. So far, Virginia Tech is off to a strong start for Antwan Reed but with four of the Big 10's six biggest programs involved in Reed's recruitment, the Hokies have a lot of work ahead to beat out Michigan, Penn State, Nebraska, and others in what seems set to be a highly-contested recruitment.

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