Virginia Tech football recruiting is off to a fast start for the class of
2005. The Hokies have already picked up seven verbal commitments since July 3.
The interesting thing is that Tech, known for the ability to recruit inside the
borders of Virginia but not outside, has landed six players from out-of-state.

VT
has gained commitments from OL Clark
Crum (Ohio), LB Nekos
Brown (Maryland), ATH Rashad
Carmichael (Maryland), DE Mike
Gee (New Jersey), WR Jacob
Sykes (North Carolina), ATH Devin
Radford (North Carolina) and DT/OL Darryl
Robertson (Virginia). We’ve seen VT land players from out-of-state before,
but never this many this early.

Before this year and going back to the class of 2001, Virginia Tech has only
landed four early out-of-state commitments. To be clear, we define “early”
as anytime before August. For example, for the class of 2006, anyone that
commits before August of 2005 will count. For the class of 2005, anyone before
August of 2004.

VT received early commitments from Kenny Jefferson and Robert Norris from the
class of 2005, Antoine Rutherford from the class of 2002, and Kevin Hilton from
the class of 2001. Rutherford was from Florida, while the other three recruits
were from the state of Maryland.

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