Virginia Tech Adds Khalil Herbert As Graduate Transfer

Khalil Herbert

Virginia Tech has gained a commitment from running back Khalil Herbert, a graduate transfer from the University of Kansas.  He visited Blacksburg over the weekend, and announced his decision on Twitter on Monday night.

Herbert chose Virginia Tech over Nebraska.  He will be immediately eligible for the 2020 season at Virginia Tech, and will have one year of eligibility.

For his career, Herbert ran for 1,735 yards and averaged 5.4 yards per carry.  In the first four games of the 2019 season, he ran for 384 yards and averaged 8.9 yards per carry before deciding to redshirt.  He ran for 187 yards this season against Boston College on just 11 carries, including an 82-yard run.

Highlights from Herbert’s game against Boston College are imbedded below.  He is listed at 5-9, 205, and is originally from Coral Springs, FL.

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  1. Looks like a great addition at our spot of greatest need. That’s good coaching/recruiting. That’s how you get to be a good team.

    1. sounding like McClease might be hanging up the cleats. He’s listed as a r-JR this season, but he’s actually a r-SR (was granted an extra year due to missing 2 years to injury).

      Several other RB’s are likely transferring or giving up football, so we need to re-stock.

      King is explosive but he also weighs 185lb soaking wet. Herbert is stout *and* explosive, and perhaps most importantly is a veteran upperclassman.

    2. For the same reason we wanted Clemson’s transfer last offseason. A lot of people would disagree that they are solid. I personally like King and will like him a lot better with a year in the S&C program after he adds 15lbs. If a tackle was broken by a RB, it was a good chance it was him doing it. I was never sold on McClease. I believe Holston would’ve played more had he been healthy. I believe McClease played more because he valued the football more than King, who had slippery hands at times, but frankly, he was all we had of those without an FR beside their name. It’s tough to be a solid back in P5 at 190lbs (and that’s listed so chances are he’s 180-185) unless you possess otherworldly speed.

    3. I like this guy’s size: 5-9, 205, and he seems to run bigger. McClease and King are listed as 5-9, 190 and 5-11, 182 respectively.

  2. amazing how someone leaving another team after 4 games and coming to VT is welcomed with open arms, but someone leaving VT after 4 games is a quitter and a snowflake – just not willing to work hard for his chance.

    1. Similar to Kelly Bryant. He graduated and didn’t want to sit behind another star. And maybe he actually wanted to experience winning ? 🤷🏻‍♂️

    2. Fans become familiar with a player they’re going to miss that guy if he transfers, or worry about future depth, and at the same time they’re going to be excited about new additions to the team via transfer who may have an instant impact… its that simple every fanbase on the planet. The portal gives and the portal takes.

      By all appearances this guy definitely quit on Kansas this year. But what are you going to do? The rules allow college players very limited options for changing their situation. But we don’t know his personal situation, and there may have been something besides saving eligibility for a grad transfer season that led him to redshirt after playing well in 4 games.
      And sometimes you just don’t want to be in Kansas anymore

  3. Welcome to Hokie Nation Khalil!

    (How did we ever lose to BC this year? Oh yeah…3 interceptions and a fumble by the starting QB…how could I forget?).

      1. this is already his 5th year in Blacksburg. He has his degree, maybe multiple degrees. he’s fought injuries his entire career. If he wants to take a shot at the NFL, now is the time. He also may just hang up the cleats. Or he may come back. I think we’ll know more this spring.

    1. It would seem he did it so that he could preserve a year of eligibility for transfer. Kansas is not exactly the place for a RB to highlight his talent — at least, not since John Riggins and Gale Sayers.

    2. “personal reasons”
      there’s some confusion about whether he intended to return to Kansas next season or if he was preserving a year of eligibility for a grad transfer season on a better team. Kansas staff seemed to expect him to transfer as soon as he told them he was redshirting, he seems to indicate that he wanted to come back to Kansas all along. He did wait until almost the last minute before their 5th game to notify the coaching staff that he was redshirting himself. So they may have not wanted him to return after that… who knows exactly how it went… but he ended up in the portal, and VT landed him.

  4. Man, those ACC Network announcers made an 80 yard run sound like a funeral march. They were terribly DULL.

    Welcome to Hokie Nation Khalil. Hope you have a record breaking senior season.

  5. And to look back and realize that we couldn’t run or score against that pathetic defense. Maybe Khalil can help our new running back coach figure out how VT can run all over BC the way Kansas did. It’s not our talent, it’s our game planning and in game adjusting that needs to be evaluated and changed.

    1. just remember what Bear Bryant said, “it ain’t the X’s and the O’s, its the Jimmys and the Joes.

  6. When he takes the field against BC next year, they’re gonna say “oh, [bleep], we have to play against him again”.

  7. I hope he doesn’t turnover the ball as much as our last Kansas transfer. Just jokin’!

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