Hokies Stage Eating Contests, Cornhole Tournaments to Impress 2017, 2018 Recruits on Junior Day

Justin Fuente's staff put on all the trappings of a traditional college junior day this past weekend, from campus tours to one-on-one meetings, but they also took a few minutes to stuff their faces.

In between the more serious conversations with the gaggle of juniors (and a handful of sophomores and freshmen) in attendance about things like the direction of the program and VT academics, the coaches challenged the recruits to eating contests. Whether it was donuts, pies, or hot dogs on the table, the Hokies' staffers undertook the very brave effort of trying to outeat the adolescent football players they'd convinced to come to campus.

Perhaps most surprising is that a few even came away triumphant in the culinary challenges.

"Coach (Zohn) Burden won the pie-eating contest, and I think Coach (Charley) Wiles won the donut-eating contest," said 2017 DE Jordan Williams of Virginia Beach's Cox HS. "They were competing with other recruits, it was great."

Williams admitted that it was his "first time seeing" college coaches indulge in junk food in such a fashion, and 2017 WR Austin Connor of Irmo, S.C.'s Dutch Fork HS couldn't help but agree.

"I've never done that on a visit, but it showed that, although the coaches are serious about football and school and our future, they also like to have fun," Connor said.

The coaches also set up a quick cornhole tournament pitting the players and coaches against each other, and it would seem they emerged triumphant from that competition as well.

"Me and (2017 LB) Justin Foster won the players' cornhole frame, but we got beat by the coaches," said 2018 LB Dax Hollifield of Shelby (N.C.) HS.

Between Fuente's efforts to show off his love of modern rap in the team's last hosting weekend and these most recent quirks, it's increasingly clear that the new crop of Hokies coaches are trying to differentiate themselves in a big way when it comes to recruiting.

The stakes were certainly high for the Hokies this weekend, with 2017 RB Khalan Laborn of Virginia Beach's Ocean Lakes HS (who's rated the state's top recruit by the 247Sports composite) headlining a star-studded group of visitors.

To Laborn, at least, Fuente and company's efforts are paying off so far.

"It was a great trip," Laborn said. "I had a lot of fun."

Laborn's visited Blacksburg several times now, so he's quite familiar with campus, but he said he valued the visit for the chance to spend some more quality time with Burden, Fuente and the rest of the staff. He'd gotten to meet the new head Hokie briefly when he swung by Ocean Lakes a few weeks back, but this was his first in-depth chat with Fuente.

"He's a cool coach," Laborn said. "I think he'll be a great coach, I think he'll be a great fit for Virginia Tech."

Burden and Laborn have been talking for some time now, given the pair's shared 757 ties, and Laborn says that they have a "great relationship" that was only further cemented by the recent visit and Burden's recent change in position focus.

"It makes our relationship much stronger, knowing that he'd be my running backs coach if I were to go to Tech," Laborn said.

He even got a chance to spend some time with one coach who notably isn't on Tech's staff anymore, snapping a quick photo with Frank Beamer.

"I see him as a Hall of Fame head coach," Laborn said.

#Legendary pic.twitter.com/kq2N2xnahM— 4KayAllDay_ (@Khalan2012) February 7, 2016

Williams may not be quite as highly rated as Laborn (the DE was recently upgraded to a 4-star prospect in the 247Sports composite ranking), but there's no doubt that the Hokies were eager to impress him as well on the trip.

Beyond the aforementioned eating contests, Williams said he got a full look at campus, after just seeing the athletic side of things like he did on his prior camps at Tech.

"It was really different, we were able to see more of the facilities instead of just the indoor," Williams said. "We were able to go in the locker room and try on jerseys and equipment, it was all fun."

Williams also got a look at the team's mockups for its ongoing overhaul of the football facilities, which he said were shaping up to be "real nice," and hung around the players' lounge a bit where he "played video games with the other recruits."

This all came in addition to meeting with the bulk of the coaching staff. In particular, he says he was glad to sit down with Wiles and Bud Foster, and, like Laborn, he too got to spend his first extended time with Fuente after a brief meeting at his high school.

"He's definitely a great guy, and I think he'll be able to build up Virginia Tech," Williams said. "I don't want to say turn it around, because Virginia Tech's at a good state right now, but I think he'll be able to build onto it with what he was able to do at Memphis and his prior coaching history, I think he'll be able to have a big impact on the program."

With all those activities on the docket, Williams says he missed the first half of the Tech basketball game against Clemson, a planned activity for the recruits on campus for the visit. Since the game was already half over, he chose to head home, but others stuck around to get a glimpse at the packed Cassell Coliseum.

"Their fans were loud and chanting and their student section was standing up the whole time I was there, it was a great experience," said 2017 LB Rayshard Ashby of Chesterfield's Lloyd C. Bird HS.

Ashby says the overall trip was "great, as usual," but the Hokies' thrilling win over the Tigers wasn't even the highlight of the visit. Instead, he found the group's tour of Lane Stadium, complete with a familiar musical accompaniment, to be the best part of the trip.

"Walking through the tunnel to Lane Stadium as they were playing 'Enter Sandman,' it was just an amazing feeling with the song being played while I was walking in," Ashby said. "I could just imagine myself playing there."

Fuente, Foster and assistant head coach Galen Scott were Ashby's prime escorts around campus, and Ashby was especially keen on getting to know Scott, since it was his first time meeting him in person.

"He's real cool, seems like a real good dude," Ashby said. "I like his vibe, I like all the coaches vibes, he just seems like a really good coach."

Ashby says he also got to talk to plenty of current players and prospects on the visit, including 2016 signee Tavante Beckett and 2017 QB Alex Faniel of Richmond's Glen Allen HS, a school not far from his own.

But not all of the big-name recruits on campus hailed from Virginia. 2017 OT Marcus Minor of Hyattsville, Md.'s DeMatha Catholic HS also made a return trip to Blacksburg after camping at Tech and earning an offer this June.

"It wasn't a bad ride, and I loved the place overall," Minor said.

Minor (who's rated a 4-star prospect by the 247Sports composite) says he'd gotten to meet Fuente and some of the rest of the new staff at his school before, but he valued the chance to tour campus with new OL coach Vance Vice to start building a relationship in earnest.

"He knows what he is doing," Minor said. "He looks passionate about his job, he shows he wants me, all positive things."

The Hokies also welcomed several prominent juniors from the Carolinas, including Connor, Hollifield and 2017 TE Drake DeIuliis of Charlotte's Providence HS.

"It was great," Connor said. "The campus is beautiful, the coaches are great. Just a great college in general."

When he wasn't busy watching the coaches stuff their faces, Connor says he got an extensive tour of campus courtesy of WRs coach Holmon Wiggins and offensive coordinator Brad Cornelsen, and he thoroughly enjoyed the sit-down meetings they had over the course of the weekend.

"Just sitting and being with them for the limited time we had, I knew they knew exactly what they were talking about," Connor said. "They just want the best for their athletes."

DeIuliis came away similarly impressed with his talks with the coaches, and he says he tried to focus on the future in his meeting with Fuente.

"He's gonna do great things at Virginia Tech," DeIuliis said. "We talked about the future of the program, me going there one day possibly, the upcoming season, all the positives coming their way at Virginia Tech."

But DeIuliis also spent plenty of time with TEs coach James Shibest, since he'd be his position coach if he were to be part of those positives hopefully headed the Hokies' way.

"Coach Shibest is a great coach, he knows exactly what he's talking about," DeIuliis said. "I look forward to possibly playing for him one day and seeing what he does otherwise."

As a linebacker, Hollifield wouldn't necessarily be playing under Shibest, but he'll be Hollifield's area recruiter going forward, so the pair spent plenty of time together.

"I like Coach Shibest a lot, he's a great guy, really nice," Hollifield said. "Him and Coach Fuente turned it around at Memphis, so they should be good there."

Hollifield also came away impressed with Foster, marveling that he's about to enter his third decade of coaching in Blacksburg.

But, more than anything, he came away highly impressed with the campus in his very first visit.

"It was the best one I've seen yet," Hollifield said.

The coaches invited him to come camp at Tech this summer to give him another chance to get acquainted with the school (a priority once they offered him on his visit), but they also told him that he "can come back any time I want."

Others are on the visit this past weekend are planning more immediate returns. Connor says he's planning on coming back to see a spring practice, and Ashby and Minor both expect to do the same.

DeIuliis is less certain, but it's certainly not because he doesn't want to visit Tech again.

"We've just got to see if we've got a perfect time on the schedule, because I know me and my family would love to get back up there," DeIuliis said.

In the meantime, he'll be heading to South Carolina this weekend (and could be joined there by Hollifield).

Williams is also still trying to figure out the logistics with a busy spring approaching — he says he's hoping to see Wake Forest, UNC and Pitt in the coming weeks.

"They were telling me about spring practices, I just haven't decided whether I'd be able to make it down there yet, with other visits coming up," Williams said. "I told them I'd let them know."

Laborn will also be doing plenty of campus tours in the immediate future (he says he's planning on visiting FSU at the end of February) but he definitely plans to visit Blacksburg again before he makes his decision. As of now, he's hoping to commit on his birthday, June 1, which doesn't give him long to see his various suitors in person.

"I'm not sure yet when I'll go back yet, but it'll probably be soon," Laborn said.

Whenever he does, the Hokies will surely roll out the red carpet, and maybe even include a few feats of intestinal fortitude and the odd round of cornhole once more.