Three-Star OL Tommy Ricard Commits to Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech has landed their first offensive line commit since the arrival of Ron Crook as OL coach as three-star OL Tommy Ricard out of Hudson, Ohio has committed to the Hokies.

Ricard is the sixth commit for the Hokies in the 2024 class and is the first from the state of Ohio. He's the first OL commit and third overall offensive commit joining four-star QB Davi Belfort and three-star RB Tyler Mason. He chose the Hokies over an offer list that also included Michigan State, Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia, Minnesota, Boston College, and others.

This is a strong win for Ron Crook on the recruiting trail landing one of his first interior offensive line offers following his arrival with the Hokies. Several of his Power 5 offers came after his most recent season in a sign that Ricard was high on the board for many of these programs.

Despite being within the six-hour recruiting footprint that Brent Pry has touted since he arrived in Blacksburg, Ohio traditionally hasn't been an area that the Hokies have heavily recruited despite the significant amount of talent in that state.

We've seen Tech push into Ohio and the Rust Belt as a whole more under Pry including on the offensive line with Tech landing four-star Layth Ghannam out of northern West Virginia and three-star Gabriel Arena out of Pennsylvania last cycle. Crook has built on what Joe Rudolph did in that region landing Ricard in a sign that you can expect the Hokies to continue to recruit the Rust Belt areas within the footprint going forward.

With Ricard on board, the focus for what is likely going to be a tackle-heavy offensive line class shifts even more onto tackle. While I wouldn't rule out Tech taking another true interior guy, it seems more likely that we see a few tackles including 1 or 2 who could easily move inside as well to fill out this OL class.