Stud Detroit corner Gervin keeps Hokies in mind after decommit from Notre Dame

Virginia Tech seeks to add a 4-star DB to its 2018 recruiting class.

"We don't have any star players here," Cass Technical High School coach Thomas Wilcher said at the start of a phone conversation. "We have players. We don't have any stars."

Great players have become a hallmark of the Detroit program. But while Wilcher won't classify any of his pupils as stars, he certainly recognizes talent when he sees it.

And he knows cornerback Kalon Gervin falls under that category.

"Success comes but you have to be patient for your success," Wilcher said. "If you're patient, you wait and you have to be ready. He's always ready.

"He's not going to be the type of kid who says, 'Coach, coach, coach, I know this is supposed to be happening.' No, he's knows it's going to come."

Gervin holds scholarship offers from close to 40 major Division I schools. He committed to Notre Dame in mid-February. Perhaps that patience surfaced when he decommitted in May.

"Like I told everyone else, I've got to do what's best for me right now," Gervin said.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound defensive back has no timetable for his decision. He doesn't have a public list of schools that's whittled down.

"It's all about who really wants me and who's going to offer the best education," he said before adding he'd like to study communications.

The 247Sports Composite lists Gervin as the No. 22 athlete in the country and a 4-star prospect. He's a speed demon, evidenced by his 4.41 40-yard dash.

Wilcher knows what that attribute means. The head coach of 19 years played running back at Michigan in the mid-80s and was drafted in the ninth round of the NFL Draft by San Diego.

He's watched high-profile athletes walk through his doors and succeed. Two-time All-America defensive back Jourdan Lewis and Wolverines' teammate Delano Hill (a second-team All-Big Ten honoree) both were drafted last month.

"I think he can adapt to (college ball) and be ready for it because No. 1, he has great speed and quickness, that's two things you can't teach," Wilcher said. "You can improve it, but you have to have it.

If you don't have it guess, what? You can't get it."

Gervin visited Virginia Tech on his spring break.

"Yeah, I went down there, took a visit, talked to the coaches, the head man, the (defensive coordinator), all that," he recalled. "It was nice, really nice. What stood out to me was how cool they were at practice."

The Hokies offered him on that visit, although Gervin knew they had a scholarship with his name on it all along. And despite Detroit's distance from Blacksburg, Gervin's well aware of Tech's program. He said location is not a primary factor in his recruitment.

What could be a piece of the puzzle comes in Gervin's relationship with one of defensive coordinator Bud Foster's assistants.

"I've really developed a close relationship with their cornerbacks' coach, Brian Mitchell, since back when he was West Virginia," Gervin said. "He's a really cool guy, he keeps it real. That's my man."

Gervin also took note of Indian River safety Devon Hunter's commitment to the Hokies for the 2017 class.

Hunter's decision has become a theme among a few of the top athletes on Tech's radar.

"He's a good cat, that was a big deal," Gervin said. "That's real big, I was paying attention to that."

The Michigan native would prefer a situation where, like Hunter, he's afforded an opportunity to possibly play as a freshman and work his way into the starting lineup.

That's along the lines of what the Hokies' staff told him.

"They just want me to come in, they said they need me to come in and play right away, maybe even start," he recalled.

He's equipped for that opportunity. Few, if any, passes were completed on Gervin last season. He worked against Donovan Peoples-Jones each day in practice.

The 247Sports Composite tabbed Peoples-Jones as the nation's top receiver last cycle. He enrolled at Michigan in January.

"I lock in, hone in on my technique," Gervin explained. "That's really important when you lock down a side of the field ... I practiced against the No. 1 receiver in the country for a while.

It just showed me that matching up great people like that is great practice. The profile of the top player in the country, it gives you a lot of confidence."

Peoples-Jones' recruitment also included Tech. Wilcher grew familiar with their new staff through their courting of his wideout.

"They've been coming here for a while," the coach said. "I definitely think it's a great school, great atmosphere, great college town. I would love to see kids go that way and prosper."

Wilcher's built a type of iron-sharpens-iron mentality that pours through the Cass Tech program. Last summer, Lewis spoke to the same sentiment to the Detroit Free Press as a reason for his success in Ann Arbor.

"Cass Tech is a factory," Lewis told the Free Press' Perry A. Farrell. "It is just like a college program. We go out there and compete against the whole country. We travel and we do different things and we compete. We compete in practice. That's something I can see that has transcended to the college game; the competition in practice.

"We had so much skill on the team, it was never a lax day at practice. We always had to compete.

That's what I brought from Cass Tech, that competitive spirit. You can see all of our guys are being successful right now."

Gervin could be next off the line.

Comments

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction:
“I served in the United States Navy"

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

"What are you going to do, stab me? - Quote from Man Stabbed

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Sometimes we live no particular way but our own

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world
So there was only one thing that I could do
Was ding a ding, dang my dang a long ling long....

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

twitter @smithey_daniel
head scout BSP scouting specializing in north florida/ southern GA highschool football scouting

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

the numbers don’t lie and they spell disaster

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

"Stick it in, stick it in, stick it in!" - William Addison Caldwell, 1872

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Jet Sweep

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Warning: this post occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)..

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Take the shortest route to the ball and arrive in bad humor.

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

"The Big Ten is always using excuses to cancel games with us. First Wisconsin. Then Wisconsin. After that, Wisconsin. The subsequent cancellation with Wisconsin comes to mind too. Now Penn State. What's next? Wisconsin?" -HorseOnATreadmill

Please join The Key Players Club to read or post comments.

Outspoken team cake advocate. Hates terrapins. Resident Macho Man Gif Poster. Distant cousin to Dork Magic. Frequently misspells words.