We’ve profiled several of Virginia Tech’s targets at wide receiver over the last few weeks, and today we’ll take a look at another one — Darryle Simmons.
Simmons is listed at 6-foot-2, 210-pounds, and he plays for St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia. He’s a 3-star recruit and is rated as the 12th-best player in Pennsylvania. Simmons has 15 reported scholarship offers, mostly from Power 5 programs like Penn State, Tennessee, West Virginia and Pittsburgh.
He isn’t the fastest receiver in the world, but Simmons always finds a way to get open. He runs a relatively diverse route tree, from slants to screens to digs. He’s quick enough to make plays down the field as well, and catches with his hands. After the catch, Simmons stays balanced and is hard to bring down. He won’t break tons of ankles like Cam Phillips, but he always fights for extra yards.
Simmons plays a lot like Isaiah Ford, at least in my eyes. Ford has never been the best athlete on the field, but his knack for running crisp routes and finding ways to get open made him great. If Simmons turns into a quality receiver at the college level, I think it will be for the same reasons. Simmons has a comparable skill set to Daniel George, who I also compared to Ford.
Simmons has drawn tons of interest from the regional programs and has included many of them in his top six schools — Maryland, North Carolina, Penn State, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and West Virginia. Fortunately for the Hokies, it seems like they’ll get an unofficial visit this coming weekend.
Virginia Tech this weekend with the bros 🦃📍@dsimm_ii @nasirpeoples
— Kyle Pitts👑 (@kylepitts__) March 20, 2017
That’s a pretty important group of recruits. Nasir Peoples, who committed in late February, is teammates with Kyle Pitts, another one of the Hokies’ targets as a tight end/hybrid player. Simmons has already visited North Carolina, Penn State and Tennessee this spring.
Simmons fits the mold of a bigger, taller receiver that Virginia Tech wants in the Class of 2018. As we’ve said, the Hokies will take at least two of those types of receivers. George and Tre Turner are two names to watch there, as is in-state product James Mitchell.
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