BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech football spoke to the local media following the announcement of its National Signing Day class. Head coach Brent Pry elaborated on the success of the program's recruitment process. Offensive recruiting coordinator Fontel Mines, defensive recruiting coordinator Derek Jones and senior director Michael Villagrana reviewed the incoming recruitment class.
Read below to see what they had to say.
Head coach Brent Pry
On recruiting more top-15 players in Virginia:
"I think it's good progress. I'm super excited about the five Virginia kids we've signed. We're also bringing Kemari Copeland in as an in-state guy. Certainly, good progress this year, but we're just two years into the investment in this state. It's going to continue to pay off, in the next cycle and the next cycle. As we develop these relationships as 8th and 9th graders, getting to know these families. It's going to be important, and I think this is just scratching the surface."
Cornerbacks coach Derek Jones
On what Quentin Reddish brings as a prospect:
"We thought Quentin was a hidden gem from day one. When you look at his measurables, when you look at his raw ability, they did a lot of different things with him. Playing him at corner, playing him at safety, but just watching him in the middle of the field, just being a natural playmaker. And anything you always want to do as a coach is you always want to ask people that you have relationships with that you trust about prospects. And because I've recruited the Charlotte area for so long, I know so many people there. Everywhere you go, people talk about Quentin Reddish. He was just a guy that we felt like fit us. And then, once we got in, and developed the relationship with the family, he started to play really well this year. And teams came from all over the place. But we were down the road with not only him, but his parents, so we were able to hold on to him."
Wide receivers coach Fontel Mines
On the benefits of recruiting in the commonwealth:
"I want competitors. You know, I want guys who are not gonna shy away from competition. I want guys who are gonna come here and be program changers. I want guys who have high character. And it just so happens, the transfer guys we recruited Da'Quan Felton and Ali Jennings are from the state. The two signees are from the state of Virginia. Like that's an opportunity for us to get a chance to see him. I can hop in my car, I can be down the road in three, four hours. I could see them at the drop of a dime on any time we can go out recruiting. That's the benefit from taking advantage of our footprint and really being visible in these schools and getting a chance to know their teammates, their counselors, their teachers, their coaches, and they're gonna be open and honest with us and vice versa. They get an opportunity to come here and spend time with us."
Sr. Director of Player Personnel Michael Villagrana
On the process of bringing in recruits early for training:
"Yeah, you'd like to bring all the guys in that are early enrollees, that want to be early enrollees. You'd like to say yeah, go ahead that works. But you got to look at a couple of things, you got to look at, who's leaving for sure, who's going to exhaust eligibility this year? We didn't have the advantage of having a ton of guys leaving the program. All right, so then you have to look at player retention. We weren't exactly sure how many guys were going to be staying. It's a good thing and a bad thing, but all the guys ended up coming back. So, then it's who leaves? Then you're able to use those spots as mid-year replacements. This year was tighter than most years for me in the past. But again, it's because we only had essentially as coach mentioned, six seniors that exhausted eligibility. So now you're banking on player retention and guys that end up moving on from the program. But we shouldn't have that issue next year."
