Recruiting Update- 10/2

Alright, so it’s a normal boring bye-week, which means it’s the perfect time to catch up on some recruiting news, and check in on a couple prospects. Things have been quiet on the recruiting front for the Hokies, even if there have been visitors in and out thanks to the multiple home games. We’re still chasing after a few big targets and we’ll likely see more offers come out soon thanks to this past week giving the coaches some more time to go out and look at prospects.

Now, Coach Burden’s the biggest twitter person of the team, and none of the other coaches had official tweets, but you can assume that they were doing much the same. It’s not every week they can go around the country and check in on current commitments and big targets.

Any predictive movement for the Hokies?

Well, tracking the 247sports Crystal Ball for the Hokies of late has been rather dull, frankly. Since the beginning of October, there have been a grand total of three Crystal Balls for the Hokies in the class of 2017. Two were for Donovan Johnson, a three-star cornerback from Detroit, both by VTScoop writers Matej Sis and Sean Levy0- and immediately followed by another prediction for Penn State, which has a 7-2 advantage in total predictions. The other prediction was national writer Ryan Bartow predicting unranked defensive tackle Janaz Jordan committing to us- he plays at Bethel in Hampton. All the VTScoop writers had predicted that previously. We’re his only offer other than Hampton University. 2018 predictors are rare at this time, but we did get a few. Three star linebacker Keshon Artis from Oscar Smith in Chesapeake got his first two Crystal Balls, both were to Tech by the VTScoop crew of Sis and Evan Watkins. A third prediction for VT was added to South County- that’s in Lorton- four star wide receiver Dillon Spalding, and current NC State commitment three star athlete Nadir Thompson has three predictions to flip to Virginia Tech as well. Nothing in the past month on the 2019 class, but that’s not surprising at all- movement on classes that far out is rare.

Recruit spotlight for this week

In trying to rotate in and out everyone on the commitment list, let’s go past the players that I shouted out last time, and this time move on to some new blood. First up, our furthest out commitment. He recently got an offer from Michigan after a three-star tight end decommitted, but no movement to that fact so far.

Dalton Keene (Littleton, CO. 6’-5”, 223lbs. Tight End)

Again, Keene still plays running back, so a lot of the highlights or scores I can find are going to be featuring him rushing. This game vs. Pine Creek, for example, was a 50-39 shootout that he ran in a couple scores.

Also for example, he went 13 rushes for 132 yards and two touchdowns against Palmer in their second win.

However, he’s also versatile, and in their victory over Wheat Ridge, he blocked a punt for a touchdown. In the 57-7 victory, he recorded two interceptions on defense and rushed for a touchdown on offense.

Chatfield then lost to Columbine 28-7, but most recently beat Widefield 52-0. Their record is 4-1, and they’re ranked highly in their Class (4A). Columbine is a 5A school, and their old rival, by the by- Chatfield apparently went down a level in competition. They only had 252 yards in the game. Widefield was the most recent game, which they won 52-0, but I cannot find exact scores for it. The video below is taken from the Widefield game, though, and it appears that Keene scored three rushing touchdowns in yet another game where he doesn’t look like he fits on the field. Side note, that’s such an odd huddle break that it gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘line up and beat ‘em’.

Next we’ll be taking a look at a defensive commitment, this time, from the Sunshine State. Aundre Ricardo-Kearney was a former Miami commitment that is currently planning to early enroll at VT.

Aundre Ricardo-Kearney (Jacksonville, FL. 6’-0”, 222lbs. Linebacker)

Mandarin high school is currently 4-0, with wins over Atlantic Coast (28-7), Ribault (16-12), DeLand (33-7), and Creekside (54-3). I can’t find anything for their victory over DeLand, though there IS this video of him blasting a quarterback for a couple of sacks. He’s still a heat-seeking missile of a player:

And of course, thanks to the fact that we can rarely see defensive stats, I can’t give you an outline of all of his performances. It really stinks when I can’t even find records of the blowout v. Creekside. We’ll have to settle for a highlight tape.

We’ll close this week with a wide-receiver-punt-returner combo. Now we’re headed north to go see the performances of Kalil Pimpleton out of Muskegon.

Kalil Pimpleton (Muskegon, MI. 5’-7”, 158lbs. Wide Receiver)

Okay, shout out to Michigan Live for doing good high school football coverage. I have articles from every one of Muskegon’s games, and the Big Red are currently 5-1 on the season. Their games so far have been 51-14 vs. Pioneer, 38-35 and the loss against Stevenson, 63-7 against Fruitport, 49-14 against Byron Center, 66-0 against Reeths-Puffer, and 69-0 against Grand Rapids Union. Let’s count the ridiculous totals, shall we?

Vs. Pioneer: Pioneer was on the receiving end of a beatdown in this 51-14 woodshedding. 260 total yards, 5 total TDs (2 passing, 2 rushing, and 1 receiving). Though he was 2-7 passing and the 2 were TDs, I’m less worried about that considering he’s playing receiver at Tech. He was 9 carries for 126 yards rushing and had three receptions for 60 yards and the touchdown.

Vs. Stevenson: In the 38-35 loss against Stephenson, Pimpleton was not the problem. He was 7-9 for 172 yards and 3 TDs through the air, and on the ground he rushed 21 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns.

Vs. Fruitport: Pimpleton dominated another team, going 10-14 for 165 yards and 4TDs in the air, along with 30 rushing yards and a touchdown. His backup was put in since the game was out of hand, or he would have scored even more. Things like that will happen in a 63-7 drubbing.

Vs. Byron Center: In a game against previously unbeaten Byron Center, Muskegon pounded their opponent 49-14. 4 touchdowns on the ground after 179 yards and 15 carries paced the Big Reds in their dominant victory.

Vs. Reeths-Puffer: Both teams being 3-1 you’d think would lead to a better game, but nope, the Big Reds stomped Reeths-Puffer 66-0. Pimpleton was all over the place, with a touchdown receiving, two rushing, and one on a punt return.

Vs. Grand Rapids Union: Um. Drubbing. The 69-0 win featured Pimpleton on a 50-yard punt return TD, a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown. Sounds like it was a lot of substitution that prevented those totals going higher- they had an enormous edge of 301 to 8 yards of total offense.

Basically, Pimpleton is a huge playmaker, and it’ll be interesting to see how that translates with his size and his position in college.