Virginia Tech went outside of its traditional footprint to land Dalton Keene, the newest member of the Hokies' 2017 recruiting class. The Littleton, Colorado product's verbal commitment went public on Monday morning and was reported by Evan Watkins of 247Sports.
#StartJumping From 1500 miles away!! The Hokies just got better!! #Statement17— Justin Fuente (@CoachFuente) April 18, 2016
Proud to announce my commitment to Virginia Tech!," Keene tweeted. "I wanted to thank everyone who has helped me get this far, but we're not done yet!"
The 6-5, 220 pound prospect is rated at 3-star recruit by the 247Sports Composite, although 247Sports pegs Keene as a 4-star. In addition to Virginia Tech, Keene had Power 5 offers from Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Syracuse, and Iowa State. He plays all over the field — running back, tight end/H-Back, linebacker, defensive end — for Chatfield HS.
Comments
Now let's keep him away from any camps and bigger offers.
Is it not Fuente's policy that once you commit to him you don't go to anymore camps or go on anymore visits?
Works for Dabo. If its done right its a great policy
Only works if a head coach is a man of his word, and so far Fuente seems like a very straight shooter. I'd also imagine it would be really hard to hold this policy if a program sends out a lot of non-committable offers.
YOU GET A COMMIT, YOU GET A COMMIT EVERYONE GETS A COMMIT
"YOU GET A COMMIT, YOU GET A COMMIT EVERYONE GETS A COMMIT"
This sounds like a twist on the UVA Commonwealth Cup policy.
The missing part is "except us" between EVERYONE and GETS.
I like.
best part is i just watched this last night haha
When's the last time we had a 4 star recruit from out West?
I'll answer my own question with a quote from Andy Bitter:
Kevin MacAdams went to Colorado State for a year, if that counts. But I think he was a Californian, originally. Came here from a Juco.
Hey, someone has to be the first rock that starts the avalanche
I don't get the hockey reference but the word play is a real nugget.
This line of humor is a bit rocky.
Love it. Great to see our recruiting footprint expanding.
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When was the last time we has seen this kind of pull in recruiting before!
Interesting tidbit: Keene's father was Charley Wiles' college roommate while at Murray State.
I'd say that's the whole bit. That's why we were on the radar of a kid in Colorado. Great job by the staff jumping on it
One might even say it's a fun fact.
So what does that make us?
Hokies?
Wow, we have quite the Murray State connections here, not even including Frank!
What an interesting player. Could seem him as Durkin or Rogers at HBack. Could see him at DE.
Nebraska insiders thought he was theirs all day yesterday.
Seeing all these exciting new commits for our team can only be described:
Taken right out of the backyard of the Big12/Pac-12, welcome aboard, Dalton!
Thank you Wiles network
Do you think seeing Bud and Wiles means he will try the D Block first? Plays end and lb. Great to go into the Spring Game with recruiting momentum to go with the hope!
Not necessarily. Given his seeming ability to play just about anywhere on the field, he'll probably play wherever the need is greatest. Foster's and Wiles's presence in the picture is probably because they're the associate head coach and (presumably, given Charley's connection to the kid's father) lead recruiter.
This was all I could think of when I saw him running the ball.
Keene actually committed last night, hot off a Nebraska visit.
I have no bad will towards Nebraska but its always nice to be on this end of a recruiting surprise
"Welp, don't want to go there!"
Wow I really wasn't expecting this at all. He picked up 3 CB's to Nebraska just yesterday. When a kid gets that many that quickly I figure the gurus must know something we don't. Today is a good day.
Not the first time we have surprised Nebraska with a big time snag...
"He did it, Mikey! Tyrod did it!"
Awesome, he projects well for a tight end.
Now, where on the quarterback depth chart do you think he'll end up?
Beat me to it. Here's a sugar cube.
You'd be surprised how big the VT Alumni Association is in Denver. If oil goes back up and I can finally move down there I really want to get a Hokie Club going for the Rockies.
IMO, the best VT Alumni Chapter outside of Virginia. I miss those people a lot!
As a graduating senior considering moving to Colorado, this makes me happy.
Side trip: this is the long term goal. Get new Hokie Clubs started where there are large alumni groups. However until recently these two groups didn't talk or share information. The first step is to get your local Hokie's to join the Hokie Club on there own. You need a decent amount of members willing to donate time and money to form a local club. Good luck.
The fact that Wiles and Foster in the picture makes me think we're targeting for defense. Put 20 good pounds on him, he could be a beast at backer or DE.
Also, I throughly enjoyed watching him destroy a team in that hideous tar heel blue.
Kid could work at IHOP with the number of pancakes served up in that video.
This is an exciting time for us Tech fans. Year after year I have watched the boards and read the recruiting news after visits and always got my hopes up but then the cb's of death would emerg and the commit would go the other way. As much as loved FB it just feels like now the new staff are recruiting circles around the old. On the Nebraska boards they were 100% sure he was going there and now their deflated like we have been for years. Suck it huskers.
Sweet, a new QB! *ducks*
All kidding aside it is nice to see us expanding our recruiting areas and going after new talent, you have to recruit the whole country if you want to compete!
Oh and while it really doesn't mean anything at all this early, this commit pushes us to the #23 spot on
247'sthe 247 Composite recruiting rankings.Now it will be really neat if we can land a Crosby commit and eclipse the top 20 mark.
Actually we are 17th in 247's rankings, 23rd in the Composite rankings.
Thanks mucho. I always forget to articulate which one I'm talking about.
Unfortunately ~40th in avg rating though.
Which just shows the pointlessness of getting excited (or dejected) about recruiting rankings 10 months before signing day when maybe 1/3 of slots are filled and a decent number of those who have already committed will decommit long before signing day.
top 25, 10 months before signing day!
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So someone correct me if I'm wrong but his dad, Wes, played with Bud and for Frank.
His dad and coach Wiles were roommates at Murray St.
Part of me wants him to gain 20lbs and play DE, part of me wants him to stay the same and play TE and part of me wants him to play linebacker.
Twenty pounds won't hurt him for TE or linebacker at 6'5".
Somehow I thought he'd be bigger
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Damn I miss this man!!
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really good stuff....thought he'd be bigger and his name is Dalton? well played, good sir!
if this kid is anything like the McCaffrey kid for Stanford (who also hails from that area), I'll be one happy Hokie
VT just found its future running back .
Eric Crosby would also make a great RB/DT/FB in Fuente/Foster's system.
Sounds like he can play every position of need we have !
:--)
Did somebody say TE?
Did somebody say QB?
/s
He seems very similar to Bucky Hodges coming out of HS. Hopefully he keeps on growing like him too. Last I heard, Bucky is somewhere around 7'14"?
I'm quite keene to see how he'll perform in Fuente's offense.
YIPPIE!
The Fuente Bank is open and we keep getting great deposits!! He (Fuente ) is a magnet for talent that wants to be a part of something very exciting.
That linebacker tape is sick, sticks his foot in the ground and goes all in for the tackle. I want to see him pile drive a Wahoo.
Nice video posted, seems like a good guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWioDr3js9U
Saw thread in tracker, minor heart attack.
Same here