Hokies Add Fourth Offensive Line Commitment To 2014 Class In Colt Pettit

The Virginia Tech Hokies landed commitment No. 14 of the 2014 class today in Halmer, Ohio Patrick Henry High School offensive guard Colt Pettit.

Pettit visited the Hokies yesterday and seemed to thoroughly enjoy his visit, telling multiple recruiting analysts that he and his family were near a decision and that he may not take any more visits, a possible sign of an imminent commitment.

Pettit is listed at 6'4" and anywhere from 240-251 pounds. He is a consensus 3-star recruit by all four major national recruiting services. Rivals rates him as the No. 59 player in the state of Ohio, typically a very good recruiting state. 247Sports has him as the No. 36 offensive guard in the country and the No. 31 player in Ohio. ESPN has him as the No. 22 guard nationally and the No. 17 player in the state and Scout has him as the No. 71 guard nationally.

Pettit held offers from at least seven schools, perhaps as many as 16, though that is greatly disputed by the four major recruiting services. Those schools include: Air Force (247, Rivals, Scout), Akron, Ball St. (Rivals, Scout), Bowling Green, Harvard (247, Rivals, Scout), Illinois, Indiana (Rivals, Scout), Kent St., Marshall (Rivals, Scout), Miami (OH), Ohio (Rivals, Scout), Purdue (Rivals, ESPN, Scout), Toledo, Western Michigan (247, Rivals, Scout) and Yale (247, Rivals, Scout) and the Hokies.

Pettit is the fourth offensive lineman committed to the Hokies in the 2014 class, a glaring need that the staff had to address. He joins Eric Gallo, Tryell Smith and Billy Ray Mitchell as offensive linemen in this class. The Hokies, however, might not be done in this class as they may try to take one or even two more offensive linemen if the circumstances are right, to try and shore up that position.

Now let's break down Colt's tape, should we?

The first video is Colt's sophomore highlights. Analysis is provided below the video:

In the opening screen he begins to list his accomplishments in 2011: First team NWOAL, First team All-District and that the team went 10-3 and went to the regional finals. Now onto my analysis:

• Pettit is a great athlete.
• He's quick off the line.
• He's often used for pulling.
• He engages opponents with momentum, knocking them back or running through them.
• He hits opponents at full speed.
• He's strong at the point of engagement keeps feet driving.
• Defenders are usually unable to disengage, but when they do they have been pushed off their spot.
• Pettit straight up de-cleats some kids on this one.
• He usually gets to his assignment and makes his block before the runner comes through the hole or around the end on pull plays.
• If you want to see his athleticism, simply watch the play that begins at 5:30 where he runs and pretty much keeps up with his halfback all the way into the end zone.
• I'm not nearly as impressed with him on the defensive side as I am the offensive, but I think that just shows how much I like him on the offensive line. His best attributes on defense are that he's good at shedding blocks, his excellent straight-line speed for his size applies there as well and he has a nose for the football.

And now onto his junior tape:

Again, he begins with his 2012 accolades, which include: First Team All-Ohio Offensive Line

• He appears to have pretty long arms for his size keeping defenders at bay at almost a full sprint.
• He manhandles smaller opponents.
• You get to see a scarier, more complete defensive player on this one. Maybe he could play on either side of the ball...
• As you may have already guessed, his team ran a pretty run-oriented offense. There's not much here to grade him on in the passing game, as even the few passes in his highlight tapes don't have him doing too much.

There is also ESPN's highlight tape of him which is linked here. I don't remember if it has different plays or not because I watched it a while back, but it is a different length than either of his YouTube highlight videos.

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