Virginia Tech Should Look Into Pursuing Florida State RB Transfer Khalan Laborn

Photo Credit: Harley Taylor

There was some major ACC news yesterday as Florida State announced that they had dismissed running back Khalan Laborn from the team.

Laborn, the former five-star RB and consensus top 2017 recruit from Virginia, seemed poised to take over Florida State's backfield this year after Cam Akers left for the NFL. Laborn was expected to have some competition from Texas A&M transfer Jashaun Corbin but now, Laborn will have to look elsewhere for his big break.

Of course, there are some questions that other major programs will have including specifics on why he was kicked off the team for what Florida State is calling a "violation of team policy." Additionally, there are questions about his suspensions from FSU's 2019 Sun Bowl appearance and Florida game along with other incidents, most of which involve violations of FSU's team policy outside of 1 marijuana citation.

While that could be reason to not even consider Laborn, Tech should look into pursuing the talented 757 running back.

As mentioned above, there are legitimate questions to figure out whether Tech should even consider offering Laborn another chance in the ACC, but Tech should absolutely look into pursuing him and seek to get answers from those questions, especially given how the past off-the-field issues are either violations of team policy or a marijuana citation.

Now some may bring up the fact that Tech already has a talented 1-2 punch at running back with Khalil Herbert and Keshawn King, but Laborn is the type of high-end talent that is always worth taking talent-wise.

If he wasn't immediately eligible (which seems likely), Laborn would be ready to slide in for Herbert and build another great 1-2 pairing with King. If he were immediately eligible, the Hokies could redshirt King this fall to prserve his elgiibility and pair Laborn with Herbert and still have a dynamic 1-2 punch in their backfield.

Khalan Laborn has also shown the potential to live up to the hype that he brings as a former five-star back after having 63 carries for 297 yards and 4 touchdowns plus 10 receptions for 66 yards this past season. His talent would be a good fit for just about any team, but his versatility also makes him a good fit in a Hokies' offense that likes to use running backs in a multitude of ways.

There would also be the in-state appeal with Laborn, a former 757 star who was one of the two biggest high school stars in Virginia in the 2017 class alongside current Hokie DB Devon Hunter. Seeing Labron get a second chance at Virginia Tech and succeed would draw lots of attention in the Commonwealth especially in the 757 and could prove quite useful on the recruiting trail.

There is a lot we don't know about Khalan Laborn's past violations of team policy at Florida State and while it's unclear if Tech should formally offer and pursue him, it's clear that it's worth it for the Hokies to look into those things and see if he is worth pursuing him given the upside.

To not do any due diligence but immediately rule out Laborn because of unknown team policy violations would be a mistake for Virginia Tech even if the answers to those questions led them to not pursue him.