Virginia Tech Football Recruiting Notes 1/16/21

Photo Credit: Jake Roth

Virginia Tech continues to look to add a couple more high school and JUCO players to their 2021 class while also shifting greater focus onto their 2022 classes and even farther down the road recruiting class. Here's some of the latest Hokie football recruiting notes.

JUCO OL Jakob Bradford

JUCO offensive lineman Jakob Bradford told us that he has had contact with Virginia Tech offensive line coach Vance Vice over the past couple days.

"Coach (Vance) Vice texted me, and said he loved my film and just asked about some more information from me," Bradford said.

Tech is looking to add at least one, if not two offensive tackles from the high school and JUCO ranks with three-star OL Cameron Dye and JUCO OL Ben Martinez among the other names that Tech has shown interest in over recent months.

Bradford has seen his recruitment start to take off with Syracuse becoming the first Power 5 school to join his offer list recently. In addition to Tech, Bradford is also hearing from multiple other Power 5 programs including Florida State, Missouri, Texas Tech, and Rutgers.

Bradford does have more eligibility than most JUCO players with four years to play three.

For Virginia Tech and the other Power 5 schools who are showing interest but haven't offered him yet, they only have a couple weeks to make a decision either way with Bradford planning to decide and sign by the February Signing Day.

Keep an eye on Jakob Bradford as a new offensive line target who could be close to receiving an offer from the Hokies.

2022 4* CB Daylen Everette

IMG Academy star and 757 native Daylen Everette is one of Virginia Tech's top defensive priorities in the 2022 class with the Hokies making the cut for him this past week.

His list includes five ACC teams (VT, UVA, Clemson, UNC, FSU), 4 SEC teams (Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee), Oklahoma, Oregon, and Penn State. Now cutting a list to 12 teams may not seem significant, but it is for Everette who has 24 offers according to 247 Sports and eliminated schools like Miami, Texas A&M, Michigan, and South Carolina to get to this reduced list.

Everette is one of the best cornerback recruits in America and is going to require the Hokies to put up a massive push in what is clearly a national recruitment that leans towards the East Coast. Expect the full kitchen sink from the Hokies from CBs coach Ryan Smith to likely Justin Hamilton and even Justin Fuente taking large roles to try to land him.

Tech (and UVA) should benefit from Everette being a Virginia native but the fact that he chose to play at IMG shows that he is more than comfortable travelling to play football and likely means that playing close to home won't be a decisive factor in his recruitment.

Tech is off to a solid start in doing what they're supposed to, but still have lots of work ahead to try to land Everette, one of their top defensive priorities.

2025 DE Ari Watford

Just about once or twice a year do we see Virginia Tech offer a player who isn't even in high school yet. This year, it was 6'5'' defensive Ari Watford out of Virginia Beach who became the Hokies' first offer in the 2025 class.

One of the most notable parts about this may be the fact that Tech wasn't even the first school to offer Watford who received an offer from Pittsburgh right before Tech's arrived.

This comes as the Hokies have also sent other offers out to talented young players out of the 757 who are multiple years away from their Signing Days including 2024 ATHs Da'Vontae Floyd and Asaad Brown II.

While some of these early offers seem crazy, they usually turn into highly-offered players by Power 5 programs when all is set and done in their recruiting cycle.