When James Franklin was hired at Virginia Tech, he wasted little time in hitting the ground running in recruiting. He flipped a handful of Penn State commits from his previous stop to Blacksburg. Franklin made a big push on signing day last month with Michigan commit Andre Clarke, a cornerback from Richmond, Virginia.
He worked on him until he signed with the University of Michigan last month. A couple of weeks after signing day, Michigan fired head coach Sherrone Moore, which opened the door for the Class of 2026 players to be able to be released from their commitment in Ann Arbor to reopen their recruiting.
Some commits have requested and been granted their release, and on Monday, it was reported that Clarke requested his release to reopen his recruitment. The door is open for Franklin to come in and make another move to land in the in-state prospect.
Virginia Tech should be in the mix for former Michigan commit Andre Clarke
Expect Franklin and his staff to make a very hard push for Clarke. A four-star recruit according to 247Sports, and is the eighth-ranked player in his class from the Commonwealth. Clarke took a visit to Michigan back in June and committed shortly after.
When he was hired, Franklin made it a point to keep the recruits home and get them to Virginia Tech, and Clarke is the perfect target for the Hokies' new coach to target right away. There are going to be several other schools in the mix as well, including some SEC and Big Ten schools.
Cornerback is a position of need in the future, and landing a four-star as talented as Clarke would send the message that recruiting in Virginia goes through Blacksburg. Franklin had a lot of success at Penn State recruiting in Virginia, and that shouldn't change now that he's at Virginia Tech.