It’s time for my annual stab at Virginia Tech’s latest round of signees. The class has already lost two guys in Rashaud Pernell and Reid Pulliam, but that still leaves plenty of new Hokies to speculate about. Figuring out how good recruits will turn out for the Hokies is the hardest thing I do for TSL, or at least it’s the hardest thing to get right.

I’m the first to admit I’m a keyboard-commentor who relies on highlight reels and a blurry full game or two to give you the best $0.02 I can muster. There’s a reason coaches invite kids to camps, after all. Just for starters, in person coaches can control the talent levels around a recruit, better see if a guy runs a 4.45 or a 4.65, and they can gauge from a recruit’s build how easy it’ll be for him to change his weight as needed.

Even the peripheral information about schools’ interest is incomplete and not always as clear as I’d like. Did a recruit undercut his rankings and interest with an early, firm commitment to Tech, or was no one else really interested? And who’s the more coveted recruit—one Alabama’s lukewarm on, or one Pitt is borderline stalking?

We’ll start with the guys currently slated to be part of D-block. Of them, Mansoor Delane and Cam Johnson might be the surest contributors the Hokies have signed, while Devin Alves is an intriguing late addition to the class.

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