WR Corey Sutton, OL Michael Cipolla Camp at Tech in Hopes of Earning Coveted Hokies Offers

With football season hurdling ever closer, the Hokies have now sent out the bulk of their scholarship offers for the 2016 class, but some remain up for grabs.

The prospect of earning one of those elusive scholarships drew more than a hundred athletes to Blacksburg the weekend of June 13-14 for a prospect camp. While the coaches handed out a bevy of offers for rising juniors in the class of 2017, the rising seniors in attendance weren't so lucky.

Nevertheless, the Hokies got another a look at a variety of prospects that could earn offers depending on how the class shakes out over the coming months.

In particular, wide receiver Corey Sutton of Cornelius, N.C.'s William Hough HS and offensive guard Michael Cipolla of Virginia Beach's Bishop Sullivan Catholic HS made the most of their time at camp to make a statement to the staff.

Both say they received effusive praise from Tech's coaches once the camp concluded, even if an offer wasn't forthcoming.

"After the camp, I met with the coaches and they said I was unbelievable, that I just blew them away," Sutton said. "They said they don't have a scholarship to offer right now because they're waiting to see what one other wide receiver does. If he commits to another school, they say I'm the next guy in line and I was very excited to hear that."

A Tech offer would be Sutton's eighth, but it would also quickly become one of his biggest pledges, with schools like Kansas State, Appalachian State and Colorado State interested so far.

Cipolla is still waiting on his first offer, and he says Tech's staff is anxious to see how he performs his senior year before making things official.

"I talked to Coach (Stacy) Searels and Coach (Bryan) Stinespring about my senior film," Cipolla said. "My senior film is really important to them, see what I can do during the season, how I progressed from last season, my footwork on film. If they see I'm in shape on film, that's really important to them."

Even still, Cipolla says the coaches were similarly bullish on his camp performance.

"I think I did well, especially at guard rather than tackle," Cipolla said. "In the individual drills, working out with Coach Searels, I feel like that went really well."

Cipolla says most colleges are recruiting him at guard, including the Hokies, even though that's not necessarily where he plays these days in high school.

"Last year he started at left tackle for us, because at 6'5" he's really tall for the position at the high school level," said Patrick Cavallario, Cipolla's head coach at Bishop Sullivan. "This year he flipped to the right side for us. But in college, I think he could definitely be a left guard or right guard, just be a real road grader. He can definitely run lots of inside and outside zone for someone."

That proficiency at run blocking comes not just from Cipolla's impressive height, but also his weight. He's already tipping the scales at 305 pounds, and Cavallario thinks a college weight-lifting program would help Cipolla harness the full potential of his size.

"He's at 305 now, but he could get to maybe 310, 315 once he gets into a weight-lifting system," Cavallario said. "It's what Virginia Tech is famous for, helping these guys convert that size into muscle."

Cipolla looks forward to the challenge of hitting the weight room hard ahead of his senior season, but also wants to focus on footwork "because you never have good enough footwork playing offensive line."

That's music to Cavallario's ears, but he also wants to see Cipolla focus on mastering the other parts of his technique.

"He's got good bend in the weight room, but I really want to see him work on his hip bend, lowering his hip and pad level," Cavallario said. "Just improving his craft as an offensive lineman."

Cipolla thinks Searels would be just the right coach to help him iron out these technique issues after his initial work with the offensive line coach at the camp.

"I feel like he's one of the best offensive line coaches i've worked with at all the camps I've been to, so I really like him a lot," Cipolla said. "I'd love to play for him if I get the chance."

Sutton had a similarly positive view of his potential position coach, Zohn Burden.

"He's really detail-oriented, more than others I've worked with," Sutton said. "He wants you to get it 100 percent right every time and create good habits. Plus he wants big, physical receivers."

At 6'2", 183 pounds, Sutton certainly fits that bill. But he also did his best to showcase his speed at camp, and his improvement in the 40-yard dash was part of what so impressed the staff.

"I ran a 40 that timed out around 4.49, 4.52," Sutton said. "And they said I did really well in the one-on-ones, no one really stopped me."

Improving that speed has been a concerted effort for Sutton, and he hopes that if he keeps shaving time off his 40 more offers will be forthcoming.

"I was running a high 4.5 last year, but now I'm down to a high 4.4, so I'm still trying to focus on my speed," Sutton said. "I ran a 4.45 at Kansas State's camp, that's why they offered me right there, but I'm still in the weight room a lot too."

But Sutton said he's done with camps for now, and will now focus on making those improvements ahead of his senior year.

Cipolla has much busier plans, heading to camps at East Carolina and Old Dominion last week, with a William and Mary camp set for this week.

But both say they'd love to return to Tech, with Sutton speculating that he "might come up for a game" during the season."

Maybe by that time, one or both of these prospects will hold the Hokies offers they worked so hard at camp to earn.

"I definitely feel like I boosted my stock at camp," Sutton said.