Zakee Wheatley broke onto the scene as a 2021 recruit to watch last May when multiple Power 5 programs extended offers including Virginia Tech.
Since then, Wheatley has been rated as a four-star recruit by Rivals and ESPN with more offers continuing to arrive, and Wheatley continuing to be a priority target for Virginia Tech, primarily at wide receiver. Wheatley also has shown interest in the Hokies which included a late summer visit to Blacksburg that he described as "amazing."
Now, Wheatley has his eyes set on trimming down his list this spring with a commitment possibly soon after that.
"I plan to have it narrowed to my top 5 by March and to schedule officials starting April 15 and hopefully committing mid May," Wheatley said.
Wheatley added that he could commit sooner than his current mid May target should he decide not to use all of his official visits.
WRs coach Jafar Williams has mostly led the charge in the Hokies' pursuit of Wheatley with head coach Justin Fuente also personally taking on a large role, showing how high Tech is on Wheatley. Wheatley told us that he has good relationships with Fuente and Williams having this to say about his relationship with the Hokies' WR coach.
"He's cool. We talk about things local to Maryland area and about playing WR at the next level, etc. He's a down to earth, real guy," Wheatley said about WRs coach Jafar Williams.
Currently, the Hokies appear to be one of the teams to watch with the four-star Maryland ATH mentioning Tech as one of the teams pursuing him the hardest. Additionally, Penn State, Virginia, and Michigan State have also been making him a major priority.
All of this Power 5 interest shouldn't be surprising after Zakee Wheatley was a dynamic, two-way player. Wheatley told us that he had 56 catches for 850 yards and 7 touchdowns as a receiver, and 30 tackles, 5 interceptions, 7 pass breakups, 1 forced fumble, and 1 recovery at DB.
Given those numbers, Wheatley definitely has a lot of strengths to his game, but also has areas for improvement as he shared with us.
"Strengths would be my size, ball skills, and quickness. Greatest improvement areas would be putting on some more weight and strength. I want to get stronger and faster in my core," Wheatley said.
There's no doubt that Zakee Wheatley is a big time recruit in the Mid-Atlantic region with Virginia Tech making it clear that the four-star ATH from Severn, Maryland is a priority in the 2021 class.
