Though most of Virginia Tech’s 2019 recruiting class is already complete, the next couple of weeks are going to be exciting. The coaching staff has been on the road in Mississippi, Oklahoma and Kansas evaluating and offering multiple junior college prospects, and they are also still monitoring (and in one case offering) late bloomers at the high school level as well. Combined with the usual scouting of Fork Union Military Academy, and we’re going to have ourselves an exciting couple of weeks between now and December 19.

JUCO recruiting will dominate most of this article, but I’d advise everyone to not put all of their eggs into the JUCO basket. My favorite JUCO this year, at least among the dozen or so players whose highlights I’ve watched, is defensive end Celestin Haba. He’s originally from Columbia, SC, and he had 17.5 sacks this year. Virginia Tech loves him as a pass rusher, and I believe he would start immediately for the Hokies.

However, the Tech staff took one look at his transcript, shook their heads, and threw it in the trash. Haba can’t get in to Tech from what I’ve been told, and not many other places either, apparently. He’s listed with offers from Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee State, Campbell and Portland State.

Welcome to the world of JUCO recruiting. Just because a guy is listed in the 247 or Rivals databases does not mean that he can get into Tech. We asked, and apparently the Hokies can admit JUCO recruits who didn’t originally qualify out of high school. However, it’s very difficult, and the pool of players is still very small. If you ever look at a JUCO prospect’s profile this year and wonder “why haven’t the Hokies offered him?”…well, there’s probably a reason for it, and there’s a good chance it’s an academic reason.

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