Virginia Tech has made their biggest transfer portal splash of the cycle as West Virginia All-Big 12 offensive guard Tomas Rimac has committed to the Hokies according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.
Tomas Rimac has committed to Virginia Tech, he tells ESPN. He's an honorable mention All-Big 12 guard and has started 28 career games. He follows OL coach Matt Moore, who just landed at Tech from WVU. https://t.co/DNTuyBqX2Z
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 26, 2024
Rimac is the Hokies' ninth transfer portal addition of the cycle and the third on offense, joining Bowling Green All-MAC First Team RB Terion Stewart and Central Missouri RB Marcellous Hawkins. He has one year of eligibility after an outstanding career with the Mountaineers.
During his time at West Virginia, Rimac earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors in 2023 and 2024 after earning Freshman All-American honors from The Athletic in 2022. He played 2,071 snaps for WVU and got better every year, earning a career best 77.1 grade from PFF this past season including an 86.3 pass blocking grade and a 75.0 run blocking grade.
This is a massive addition for the Hokies, who land a proven Power 4 starting offensive lineman who can be an anchor of an offensive line that is losing four starters at least including their two best talents to the portal in Xavier Chaplin (Auburn) and Braelin Moore (LSU). This is also a great sign of the respect that Matt Moore earned from his offensive linemen at WVU a standout player like Rimac would follow him to VT over likely a number of other Power 4 options.
Rimac has played left guard throughout his career and likely will slide into that spot for the Hokies. This leaves right guard as a spot for the taking with Brody Meadows, Layth Ghannam, and Bob Schick among the potential candidates for that job. The Hokies will still likely add a few more offensive linemen in a room that needed a rebuild given their struggles this past season and the loss of promising young talents like the All-ACC Honorable Mention left tackle Xavier Chaplin.
Rimac also fills the experience gap that the departures of Chaplin and Moore had left the Hokies with, and provides an immediate leader in the offensive line room for Matt Moore to build around.
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