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Transfer Portal Offensive Linemen to Watch for Virginia Tech After Troy Everett Chose Oklahoma

Ron Crook 1 VT Spring Practice 2023 From VT

Virginia Tech suffered a disappointing transfer portal battle loss late last week when App State Freshman All-American OL Troy Everett chose Oklahoma over the Hokies. With Tech still looking at least for an interior guy and/or a tackle as well, the Hokies are quickly shifting their focus to other targets especially on the interior while some tackle targets grow in priority.

So with that said, here are some offensive line names to keep an eye on.

Harvard OL Mason Williams

With Troy Everett heading to Oklahoma, the interior offensive line focus shifts to Harvard's Mason Williams.

The All-Ivy League First Team offensive lineman recently told us that he is planning to visit Virginia Tech on May 19-20th with plans to visit Memphis after that. He is focusing on those two schools plus Colorado State which he has already visited.

Williams definitely fits the interior offensive line need that the Hokies have as someone who could come in and immediately compete for the starting right guard job at minimum. In some ways, Williams likely would be the favorite for that job against Bob Schick and Jesse Hanson. Unlike Everett, Williams doesn't bring the versatility to play center so don't expect Kaden Moore to slide back to guard from center at this point.

Williams only has one year of eligibility remaining and would be a true rental player for the Hokies. While Tech would have loved to gotten someone with more eligibility like Everett, Williams can be a good bridge to allow some younger guys to develop or allow Tech to go get a younger, talented interior offensive lineman in the next transfer portal cycle should they land him.

Gardner-Webb OT Clayton Frady

The two-time First Team All-Big South offensive tackle Clayton Frady has emerged as one of the better available offensive lineman in the transfer portal with the contenders in his recruitment becoming pretty clear.

Frady told us that he is visiting Virginia Tech on May 18th with a visit to Cincinnati scheduled for prior. He has also already taken visits to Duke and Appalachian State with the Gardner-Webb standout not considering any schools beyond those four at the moment.

There's no doubt that Frady would be a strong addition to Virginia Tech's offensive tackle group that has very little experience outside of Parker Clements. Frady definitely would likely have the talent to come in and at least compete with Clements and Xavier Chaplin for a starting job along with providing quality depth at worst this season. He also has two years of eligibility remaining and could easily project to be a starter in 2024 or if he earns it in 2023, allow Tech to slide Chaplin inside at least for a time to start at right guard.

Frady is targeting the end of May at the latest as the date to make his decision by though he added that he will choose his next school "whenever it feels right."

ECU OL Nishad Strother

Now this is more speculative based on the fit, but East Carolina OL Nishad Strother would seem like a sensible target for the Hokies given his starting experience at ECU, Tech's need at offensive guard, and his North Carolina roots.

Strother has started at least a majority of games at ECU in each of the past three seasons playing over 2,000 snaps during his four years in Greenville. He also has shown improvement during his time at ECU earning his best PFF overall season grade this past season of 72.8.

Thanks to the free COVID year, Strother has two years of eligibility remaining and could be a strong multi-year building block on the interior.

Now it's unknown if Tech is even pursuing Strother though it wouldn't shock be given his talent and experience along with the proximity. There have been rumors on Twitter about Strother and Oregon though there hasn't been anything substantive to actually confirm that talk.

It's unknown if Strother is receiving interest from Virginia Tech, but he's the type of instant plug-and-play starting guard from not far away that would make sense for the Hokies.

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