Rayshard Ashby Signs With Virginia Tech as Part of #Statement17

The Hokies boosted the linebacking corps with the addition of Lloyd C. Bird product Rayshard Ashby. Per 247, Ashby rates as a three-star inside linebacker, the 30th best at his position in the country and ranks as the 21st overall recruit in Virginia. Justin Fuente’s emphasis of dominating recruiting in-state certainly paid dividends with the verbal commit on March 26th, and now the NLI signed by Ashby. The 2017 linebacker also had competing offers with West Virginia and Maryland.

Ashby is not necessarily the biggest ILB by many standards, but he is stocky, measuring in at 5-11, 235 pounds. From his scouting report by BlueLoneWolf back when Ashby committed:

“VA Preps named Ashby their player of the year for 5A. First team all-state for the VHSL, and, well, accolades go on and on. Why is he rated so low? He's only around six feet tall, which is short for a lot of universities. I think he's underrated, definitely. His highlights are basically everything I liked about Eron Carter's plays last year. He's got a head on his shoulders and does a very good job at anticipating the play. I'd say he's faster than Carter is, though obviously carter had the more ‘ideal' frame. I DO think he actually rolls into coverage well, and again, I like the tackling form, generally. Usually it's head up, body forward. He does a great job of not being caught up in the trash in the middle when he comes on blitzes, which is key for his size. The cool thing is if you're going to be a shorter linebacker, you've got to be built like Ashby is, and that's like a fire hydrant- I mean that in the best possible way. You've got to bring solid mass with you to tackle, and he's got it- and it looks like it's muscle, judging on how he hits like a truck.”

Welcome to Virginia Tech, Rayshard. We think you’ll like it here.