Virginia Tech football coach Brent Pry prioritized recruiting in one vital area & made massive progress
By Scott Roche
When Virginia Tech hired Brent Pry, one of the first things he knew he had to do was form relationships within the state of Virginia. Former coach Justin Fuente did not and paid the price in recruiting with a lot of the top talent in the state leaving and going elsewhere. Pry knew that couldn’t happen if he was going to turn things around in Blacksburg.
Early Signing Day was Wednesday and in all, new Hokies were welcomed, but aside from the four transfers and high school recruits, the numbers surrounding the players from Virginia committing to Tech compared to this last season is a very promising sign for the future in Blacksburg.
Brent Pry hits it big in recruiting in Virginia
In just short years at the helm, Pry landed four Top 15 recruits from Virginia, as compared to zero last year. Heck, you make it Top 20 recruits from Virginia, then he landed five of those in total with the four Top 15. If there is someone who knows how to recruit in Virginia, it's Pry who had a lot of success when he was at Penn State.
Four-star defensive lineman Gerard Johnson (No. 6), three-star defensive back Joshua Clarke (No. 14), three-star defensive back Chanz Wiggins (No. 10), and four-star wide receiver Keylen Adams (No. 5) are the four Top 15 recruits from Virginia. Four-star safety Quentin Reddish is ranked 19th in the state.
When you’re rebuilding a college football program, the transfer portal is one way to quickly bring the rebuild along. That is, however, a short-term fix, and bringing in high school players in recruiting is essential and Virginia has some very good high school talent that was not really recruited by the former staff. The top talent was leaving Virginia for greener pastures around the country, but Pry knew what he had to do, hit it big within the state and that talent within Virginia.
Wednesday was a good start for that with the in-state talent that signed and if it is any indication of what’s to come, then the Hokies are mending fences quickly and becoming a prime destination for the local recruits to play at.