Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer has announced his retirement. The ultimate fallout with class of 2016 recruits won’t be known until National Signing Day in February; however, I have reached a handful of class of 2016 commits for their initial reactions.

I would expect most of the commits to take a wait-and-see approach and see who his named head coach, what assistants are retained, etc., before determining whether or not to stay with the Hokies. In terms of immediate de-commits, Greer (S.C.) senior cornerback Troy Pride Jr. is one commit I’m keeping an eye on. He recently took an official visit to Notre Dame and has made no secret that the Irish have made big-time inroads. Frank Beamer’s departure could well push Pride into making a switch.

At this point, 17 high school seniors have verbally committed to Virginia Tech. Four of those prospects — QB Joshua Jackson, WR Sam Denmark, DE Jimmie Taylor and DB Myles Wolfolk — have signed grant-in-aid papers with plans on enrolling in January of 2016. These papers are non-binding, meaning these recruits can still choose to go to another school without penalty. For these and other prospects hoping to enroll early (WRs Divine Deablo and Eric Kumah, and CB Khalil Ladler have said they want to enroll in January as well), the timetable is sped up. Ideally, Virginia Tech would have a new coach and staff in place in time for these recruits to get to know the new staff.

Below is a rundown of those commits we have reached so far. The article will be updated as we get more reactions and information.

...