Star Old Dominion WR Transfer Ali Jennings Commits to Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech has made a major splash in the transfer portal landing a commitment from Star Old Dominion WR Ali Jennings.

Jennings chose the Hokies over Mississippi State and Duke where he was planning to take visits along with likely a multitude of other schools. Jennings is currently as the #1 WR transfer and #4 overall transfer in the country by On3 as of December 12th.

Jennings earned All-Sun Belt First Team honors this past season after having 54 catches for 959 yards and 9 touchdowns in only 9 games this past season averaging 17.8 yards per catch. That came after a 2021 season where he had 62 catches for 1,066 yards and 5 touchdowns also averaging over 17 yards per reception in that season.

Virginia Tech's top transfer portal need was wide receiver entering the offseason and that only grew when Kaleb Smith announced that he was entering the transfer portal. While Smith hasn't ruled out a VT return, the Hokies need at least 1 clear WR1 caliber playmaker and have found that in Jennings who had 2 impressive seasons at ODU with QB play that wasn't great exactly.

Now some may say that Tech has had disappointing results with previous high profile WR additions from lower levels after the struggles of Jadan Blue coming from Temple this year with Changa Hodge struggling after arriving from Villanova under the previous staff. However, Jennings has a higher level of production that was repeated in back-to-back years at ODU while the offense that Tyler Bowen runs likely will have lots of similarities to what Ricky Rahne runs at ODU given the fact that Bowen was an offensive assistant under Rahne at Penn State.

Now Tech still likely could use at least 1 more wide receiver from the transfer portal, but Jennings is the big time addition that can drive the WR room for the Hokies in 2023.

Tech had plenty of connections to Jennings that likely helped starting with having former ODU TEs coach Fontel Mines as the WRs coach. Additionally, the friendship between Brent Pry and ODU head coach Ricky Rahne is well-documented while Tyler Bowen was also on staff with both at Penn State. Additionally, Bowen overlapped with ODU WRs coach Mark Dupuis at Fordham for two years including in 2016 when Bowen was the offensive coordinator and Dupuis was the WRs coach.

While Jennings may not be a 2023 high school recruit, he is still a Richmond native where Tech has seen their massive in-state recruiting push since Pry's arrival have its greatest success this cycle among the Commonwealth's eastern metros.

When Jennings entered the portal, this felt like an ideal target for the Hokies both in terms of need and connections with Virginia Tech staving off plenty of Power 5 competition to land his commitment.