Photo Credit: Harley Taylor
After Barry Odom's dismissal from Missouri, three-star DE Robert Wooten announced his decommitment from the Tigers.
Due to coaching changes I’ll be decommitting from mizzou. I loved coach odom and everything he was about. With that being said my recruitment is re opened !
— RobertWooten ¹⁵ (@Robjayy15) November 30, 2019
Around the aftermath, multiple schools reached out to Wooten including Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Baylor, Texas Tech, and SMU. Now, Wooten is down to 2 schools with plans to take his fifth and final official visit to one of them.
Robert Wooten told us that he is down to Virginia Tech and SMU with Wooten planning to take an official to Virginia Tech on the weekend of December 13th-15th. Wooten had been considering taking an official to California, but has chosen to use his final official for a trip to Blacksburg over one to Cal.
Wooten had this to say when specifically asked whether the Hokies and Mustangs were his two finalists.
"Yep, anybody else I either haven’t visited; and I won’t go somewhere I haven’t visited, or they’re just not for me," Wooten said.
Robert Wooten had this to say on why Virginia Tech is one of his two finalists.
"They’ve shown interest for a long time and they have a promising future. Young group and they’re building something special," Wooten said.
He had similar reasons for why SMU was included among his final 2 schools.
"Same thing, they’ve been in it since the beginning. They treat me like they value me. I’ve visited like 4 times and they’re building there too. Feel like I could help make an impact in that conference," Wooten said.
One thing that Wooten is definitely interested to see is who the next defensive coordinator will be at Virginia Tech. While Wooten doesn't appear to have any insight on the current process, he did tell us that he is "hoping Coach [Barry] Odom gets the DC job at VT."
On paper, Virginia Tech may be the favorite as the Power 5 program, but SMU should be considered a serious contender with the Mustangs having a strong foundation with Sonny Dykes and appearing to head in the right direction. SMU does have the in-state advantage though the Hokies have proven that they can recruit in Texas especially after landing 2021 four-star QB Dematrius Davis recently.
Robert Wooten is a priority for Virginia Tech ahead of the Early Signing Day with the Hokies having a great opportunity coming in a week and half to make their case.
