When the Transfer Portal opened last month, there was some big turnover with the Virginia Tech football program under new coach James Franklin. There were some young players who entered the portal who were recruited under former coach Brent Pry.
Pry brought in some good athletes, and one of those was wide receiver Micah Matthews, who was a dual-sport star in baseball and who entered the portal. When he came to Blacksburg, he turned his focus to football. He redshirted this past season for the Hokies and has four years of eligibility remaining. On Tuesday, he committed in the portal, and the Virginia native is remaining in the Commonwealth after he committed to James Madison.
Former Virginia Tech WR Micah Matthews commits to James Madison
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Matthews is joining the Dukes and first-year head coach Billy Napier, who took over for Bob Chesney, who left after JMU's College Football Playoff loss to Oregon to be the head coach at UCLA. Napier was fired late last year at Florida.
A four-star composite at 247Sports coming out of high school, Matthews had a monster junior year where he hauled in 86 catches for 1,476 yards and 16 touchdowns. When he committed to Virginia Tech, it was surprising, but a huge get for Pry and his staff at the time.
It isn't surprising that Napier was able to land the Bridgewater, Virginia native, as he is the type of player that fits in Napier's offense. A speedy wideout, Matthews is the second player from this Transfer Portal cycle from Virginia Tech who is transferring in-state after Christian Ellis left Blacksburg and committed to Virginia.
James Madison was on Virginia Tech's schedule in 2026, but they were dropped after the Hokies needed to drop one non-conference game to pick up a 10th Power 4 conference foe, which is a ninth ACC game against SMU.