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Hokies Football: Devin Wilson Has Walked On Football Team as WR

There have been a few basketball players who have played football in high school and decide to give football another shot in their senior seasons knowing that the NBA is out of the question. It has worked out for a few guys including Green Bay Packers CB Quinten Rollins who played one year of football at Miami (OH) after starting 106 out of 116 college basketball games and was impressive enough to earn MAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and become a second round draft pick. Guys like Rollins have likely not gone unnoticed by basketball players who also had football options, and one former three-star football and basketball recruit is now attempting to make a gridiron return. Virginia Tech PG Devin Wilson walked on the football team yesterday and will play wide receiver, joining the competition for the third wide receiver spot behind Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips. Wilson was a three-star point guard and wide receiver recruit coming out of high school with four football offers from N.C. State, Temple, Ohio, and Akron, but chose to play ACC basketball at Virginia Tech over ACC, AAC, or MAC football. Even though Wilson hasn't played football since high school, Wilson is definitely an intriguing athlete with great size for the wide receiver spot at 6'3'' though he will need to add some more weight. Wilson will also have a lot of work to do to learn the playbook and relearn a lot of basic receiver routes that he hasn't needed since high school. What will be interesting to see is can Wilson get some momentum in terms of earning playing time. If not, it wouldn't be surprising to see Wilson leave the team at the end of spring practice or during the fall to go back to basketball. Reports have said that Wilson still plans on playing basketball no matter what though if he has a big year on the football field and became a potential NFL Draft prospect, you have to think that his basketball career will be over. If he ends up staying through football season, seeing him rejoin the basketball team in full after the end of the regular season would be likely unless Virginia Tech made the College Football Playoff. One another intriguing thing to watch is if Wilson sticks with the football team, the Hokies may be able to move him from being an on-scholarship basketball player to on-scholarship football player if football has a few open scholarship spots. If this happens, this would open the door for Buzz Williams and the Hokies to add another player for next year while potentially still having Wilson in the program. The move to football for Devin Wilson adds another intriguing storyline to the battle for wide receiver playing time behind Isaiah Ford and Cam Phillips.
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