Richmond was always an area of strength on the recruiting trail for Virginia Tech. Dating back to the days of Jim Cavanaugh, the Hokies signed a ton of good players from Richmond and the surrounding area. That trend continued for the first few years of Shane Beamer’s tenure, but has abruptly stopped over the last year.

I’ll throw some names out there for you: Ricky Hall, Kevin Lewis, Jonathan Lewis, Jim Davis, Noland Burchette, Duane Brown, Macho Harris, John Graves, Davon Morgan, Blake DeChristopher, Alonzo Tweedy, the Hopkins brothers, Antone Exum…etc. Outside the 757, I don’t think there’s any place in the state that has been more beneficial to Virginia Tech.

Richmond remained in VT’s hands, and if anything the ties were only strengthened in Shane Beamer’s first few years on the job. Beamer’s first class at Virginia Tech was 2012, and here are the Richmond area recruits he has signed since then:

2012: Nigel Williams, Augie Conte, Joel Caleb, Jerome Wright, Deon Clarke, Desmond Frye
2013: Holland Fisher, DJ Reid
2014: Shawn Payne, Raymon Minor, Tabyus Taylor, CJ Reavis

...