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Virginia Tech Set For Important Recruiting Weekend (Dec 9-11th)

Brent Pry 3 VT Miami 2022 HT

As the transfer portal has gotten into full swing and the push to Early Signing Day has grown, recruiting season has hit arguably its most hectic point of the year with Virginia Tech unsurprisingly busy at the moment.

The Hokies have potentially their biggest recruiting weekend of the month this weekend as the Hokies have an impressive group of visitors set to be on campus this weekend.

The biggest name has to be Old Dominion star transfer WR Ali Jennings with Adam Gorney of Rivals first to report that Jennings will be taking an official visit to Virginia Tech this weekend. Rivals also reports that he plans to take visits to Duke and Mississippi State next week.

Wide receiver is Tech's biggest need currently and Jennings can absolutely be that WR1 that VT needs to find with Kaleb Smith entering the portal. Even as ODU's passing game struggled some over the past two seasons, Jennings was a star with 116 receptions for 2,025 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns while averaging 17.5 yards per reception.

Tech has plenty of strong ties here from Fontel Mines being on staff at ODU when Jennings was there in 2021 to the friendship that Brent Pry and Tyler Bowen have with fellow former Penn State assistant and now current ODU HC Ricky Rahne. Jennings' collegiate position coach Mark Dupuis was also the WRs coach for Fordham when Tyler Bowen was on staff in 2015 and 2016 with Bowen as the OC in that season.

Jennings is the type of proven, dynamic playmaker that the Hokies could really use and would be a massive addition if they can beat off loads of competition for him.

On the high school front, all of this starts with four-star LB Kaveion Keys out of Richmond's Varina HS. Keys decommitted from North Carolina on Thursday with Tech having an in-home visit with Keys that same day and Rivals' Adam Friedman reporting later that evening that Keys was going to take an official to VT.

Penn State is considered the favorite, but the Hokies have a massive opportunity to make a big move and flip the script this weekend. Tech has done well in rebuilding their recruiting success in VA with the quality 11-35 guys in the Commonwealth, but VT needs to get back to landing multiple top 10 VA guys per year and Keys would be a big step in the right direction ahead of an important 2024 cycle.

Two other notable uncommitted guys will be on campus starting with App State RB commit Jeremiah Coney. The Richmond area standout just recently received an offer from the Hokies as they look to add a true RB to their 2023 class. You can read more here about Coney here, but it's hard to not like Tech's chances of pulling a flip given their offer and immediate push that has him visiting about as quickly as he could for an official.

Former Cincinnati commit and three-star WR Ayden Greene was one of Tech's top WR targets prior to his commitment to the Bearcats. Now that he's back available after the departure of Luke Fickell for Wisconsin, Tech has quickly made a big push for him including an in-home visit recently with Greene tweeting out his plans to visit Blacksburg earlier this week.

Multiple Virginia Tech commits are expected on campus including three-star DE Jason Abbey from Richmond which could be valuable with Richmond HS standouts like Keys and Coney plus a Richmond native in Jennings all on campus. Dante Lovett, Caleb Woodson, Lance Williams, Gabriel Arena, and Ishmael Findlayter will also be on campus for visits this weekend with having multiple commits on campus having the potential to be helpful in trying to land some of these big targets.

This list will be updated as we either hear more, players announce their intentions publicly, or others publicly report news of visitors.

Recruiting Visitors

  • Old Dominion WR Ali Jennings (4* transfer per 247 and On3)
  • 4* LB Kaveion Keys (Richmond, VA)
  • 3* CB Dante Lovett (Hyattsville, MD) (VT commit)
  • 3* DE Jason Abbey (Richmond, VA) (VT commit)
  • 3* OL Lance Williams (Alcoa, TN) (VT commit)
  • 3* DL Ishmael Findlayter (Mississauga, ON) (VT commit)
  • 3* WR Ayden Greene (Powell, TN)
  • 3* RB Jeremiah Coney (Henrico, VA) (App State commit)
  • 3* OL Gabriel Arena (Harrisburg, PA) (VT commit)
  • 3* LB/DB Caleb Woodson (Haymarket, VA) (VT commit)
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