Vanderbilt S Tae Daley Commits to Virginia Tech

Photo Credit: Harley Taylor

After landing Maryland grad transfer Johnny Jordan right after Christmas, Virginia Tech made another splash in the transfer portal right before 2021 begins landing a commitment from Vanderbilt safety Tae Daley.

Daley is a grad transfer with one year of eligibility remaining after starting 17 games in 2018 and 2019 for the Commodores before entering the portal prior to the 2020 season. He started all 9 games he played in during the 2019 season finishing with 57 tackles and 3 interceptions after a 2018 season where he had 45 tackles including 5.5 for loss (1.5 sacks) while playing in 13 games, 8 of which were starts.

DL coach Darryl Tapp likely played a large role as Tapp was on staff at Vanderbilt in 2018 when Daley earned his first starts as a Commodore. That connection likely gave Daley the familiarity that he needed especially with formal visits not allowed at this time due to the pandemic.

With Divine Deablo heading to the NFL, Daley gives the Hokies a quality veteran safety who would appear to have the skills to play either free safety or rover. Daley will be a frontrunner to start with Devin Taylor, J.R. Walker, Keonta Jenkins, and Nasir Peoples among the other Hokies most likely to receive the most playing time at safety in 2021. Chamarri Conner could slide to rover but it's most likely that he stays in his current nickelback role.

We will have more as this story develops.