Good Leftovers: Surprise Commit from Deablo Adds to WR depth

Tonight the Hokies picked up a commitment from Divine Deablo, wide receiver out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Out of all the remotely possible commitments that might come this weekend, this was much more of a surprise. Credit to Evan Watkins of 247sports.com for predicting him a couple months ago after his first unofficial, but this particular wide receiver was still thought to be a heavy UNC lean by a large part of the recruiting community. The headline on a recent article read that he was a huge fan of the familial vibe of Blacksburg, and apparently it enraptured him enough that he made his commitment tonight. I'll admit, I didn't feature him in my own preview because I didn't think we were really in contention for him, but I'll definitely eat crow when it comes to a 3-4 star commitment (3 star on Rivals, 247, and Scout, 4 star (ranked 172 in the nation) on ESPN).

Divine Deablo (Winston-Salem, NC. 180lbs, 6'-3", Wide Receiver)

The first thing you can obviously note about Deablo from the numbers and the tape is that the kid, for only being 180lbs, is massive. He simply towers over most defensive backs. That's a number one, God-given advantage. He's got a good sense of open space, easily picking through the trash and finding open holes in coverage. It's patently obvious, however, that a lot of those plays were tailored for him- the coach must have known what he had. Get Divine in space and get him the ball. It's really interesting that they line him up in the slot so often. That does lend itself to a good matchup against who would normally be a no. 3 corner- unless someone's playing man-on coverage and mirroring offensive moves with defensive schemes. Deablo's strong and is a long strider. I don't see a ton of top end speed, but he sure moves away at a faster rate due to those long legs. He somewhat reminds me of a Mike Evans or Vincent Jackson type, but those two are much heavier. Right now my pro comparison would be Martavis Bryant of the Steelers. He's also got experience as a wildcat back and a fly sweep wide receiver, making me believe more and more that the offensive strategy was ‘get the ball to Divine and see what happens'. Either way, he shows promise as a pure wideout, and would provide a matchup nightmare to often smaller ACC corners.

Welcome to the VT class of 2016, Divine!