As Wednesday wore down, 2018 QB DeJuan Ellis of Owings Mills, Md.'s McDonogh School decided to make Justin Fuente's day.
Ellis waited until 5 p.m. to give Fuente an especially good piece of news, but to hear Ellis tell it, it was worth the wait for the coaching staff.
"I called Coach Fuente, and he just went off," Ellis told The Key Play. "He said he just about jumped out of his seat and Coach (Brad) Cornelsen was there with him, and I could hear him in the background saying 'Yes,' so they got what they wanted."
The Hokies don't lack for future options at quarterback — what with Dwayne Lawson and Josh Jackson already in the fold and Hendon Hooker set to come on board in 2017 — but Fuente seemed so taken with Ellis' abilities that he pursued the young signal caller anyway.
"He said I could fit into their offense with the spread, plus the read option," Ellis said. "Plus, he said I have a strong, accurate arm, which he really likes and I get the ball out quickly."
At 6'0" and 160 pounds, Ellis is hardly the most physically intimidating QB. But he has elite speed (dazzling trainers at the Nike Open Regional camp in Centreville this spring), and Fuente was quite interested in that as well.
"He said I can move around, but throw just as well, so we can throw both in the mix and see how it goes," Ellis said.
But as recently as March, Ellis wasn't sure if he even still held an offer from the Hokies. Frank Beamer's staff initially extended him a scholarship, but when Fuente and company took over, he was uncertain about his standing with Tech.
Yet he made a point to stay in contact with the Hokies and visited Blacksburg on March 31, where they confirmed their interest in him and dazzled him in the process.
"It just felt like family when I first went up there, even when I didn't have the offer from them yet," Ellis said. "When they first saw me, they told me a lot of good things, and I just felt like it was the place I needed to be."
Ellis got another taste of Tech two weeks ago for the team's vaunted "Blacksburg Bash," staying for both the cookout and the prospect camp the next day.
"It was really exciting, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed it," Ellis said.
Ellis showed up a bit too late for the team's bevy of athletic competitions on the day, but he still got to feel the vibe around campus as one prospect after another pledged to the Hokies.
"It was a lot of excitement from the campus, a lot of energy," Ellis said. "I could feel it."
Now that he's followed suit and committed to the Hokies (joining "Blacksburg Bash" commit ATH Bryce Thompson as the second member of the 2018 class) he sees plenty of other Tech trips in his future.
Ellis anticipates he'll be down to see some of fall camp "not this week, but the next," in addition to taking in a few contests at Lane Stadium.
"I'll definitely be down there for a couple games," Ellis said.
In the meantime, he's looking forward to focusing on his first season at McDonogh (he transferred from Arlington's Bishop O'Connell HS a few months back) and convincing other prospects his age to join up with Tech.
"We have to get as many pieces as we can," Ellis said.
Comments
Sounds like he's wanted to be Hokie for a while, and the coaches are not the only ones excited about his commitment. Feeling a lot better about him being a Hokie after reading this. Great stuff.
Same here. I like that he seemed to pursue VT as much as VT pursued him.
Y'all, TKP is incredibly lucky to have Koma. As publisher, I see what happens behind the scenes, and I am extremely proud of his hustle to publish the first (as best I can tell) commitment interview with Ellis — one of Tech's biggest gets in recent memory.
(As a dad, I am more inclined to say sh-- like this now.)
Koma:
(This is also how I feel about today's news.)
Meh, I prefer(ed) celebrations like this
As a lifelong Orioles fan, I concur. Like him or hate him, though, Bautista's bat flip is pretty iconic.
Not as iconic as him eating a knuckle sandwich
Thanks, Koma! Impressive work!
Also more inclined to censor your posts more than you used to!
It was pretty clear early on that Koma was a great get. I hadn't heard of him before he committed to KeyPlay, Rivals had him as unranked but 247 gave him three stars. But since then it's been clear he's a five-star-get-after-it-talent at the journalist position.
He was way under-rated, so he really fits in with the rest of the crew at VT/TKP/VT community.
Holy exclusive, Batman. He committed an hour ago and you already have an interview? This is why I'm a key player
Alex, breaking the news, and then following it up with an interview within minutes....what are you some kind of reporting superhero??? It's like you just scored on a read option then went out and kicked the PAT.
TKP; getting better everyday.
This is why TKP is so important. I told Joe this last week but without TKP my fandom would not have grown like it has. Reading things like this and French's reviews brought me back from where I might watch a game on TV to going to my first game at Lane since mid 90's to joining the Hokie Club to now owning season tickets. If you haven't already, join the Key Players Club and keep great content like this coming. Then join the Hokie Club to support our sports teams in getting better.
I don't usually get excited about prospects. I love this kid's film.
What about his film do you love the most? Is there a comparison for his skill set?
Do we think Lawson transfers in the future?
Why do we say things like this?
This is why we can't have nice things.
Why? This kid won't show up until 2018? Lawson is already a Soph.
Yeah, I don't understand this constant obsession about whether or not Lawson will transfer based on every QB commit. I get that for VT, QB recruiting was very tenuous for a while, but at the moment we have a deep bench of highly touted guys. At one point, sure, Lawson seemed to be the heir apparent and the best QB recruit we had gotten in a long while, and it was a big deal because he was a Miami flip and we were basically a complete patchwork at QB then. But since that time, with Evans, Jackson, Hooker, and now Ellis, it seems that we are continually recruiting great guys at this position. If Lawson transfers, he transfers. It's not like that's automatically a death knell for the program.
Right.
Lawson is a talented guy, but Fuente has even said that he needs to adjust to college life and not put too much pressure on himself to be a starter. I think Fuente wants to redshirt Lawson this year to allow him to develop, get to know the playbook, etc. This time next year will be his 3rd year in the program and he SHOULD make a run at the starting job.
Competition is a good thing. We should have a few guys competing for the #1 job.
why redshirt him when you can put him in to throw a total of 9 passes in a season?
That's a good point.
Was it really 9? I thought it was less.
That was a real head scratcher last season. It was up there with the 67 yard field goal vs. Duke for me.
Beamer let Joey kick from that far because he's hit them before. He has a hell of a boot. We were far more likely to get 3 there than 7 with how we were playing.
Agreed. Probably only a 1 in 10 chance even with his leg, but way better than the odds of getting a TD there. The realistic choice was punt and play for the tie or try the field goal. Plus, that would have been a Hokie highlight for all time if it gone through.
Those cleats doe.
I would've let Joey run it.
Agreed, awful, awful, awful decision to try that FG. Both the 67 yard FG and the hail mary had a 0.0001% chance of succeeding, but a FG protection unit isn't going to track down a returner on a short FG or a blocked FG like FSU/GT or Bama/Auburn showed us.
I'm really surprised that so many people defended it. Sure, he may have hit longer in practice....but was that with an OL in front of him or just a holder? Was it with a defense trying to block it? Kickers max out their legs all the time, doesn't mean that you try it in that situation with so many negatives apparent.
Anyway, that's over. Much like seeing the transition from Gentry to Hilgart showed us how the previous regime may have been slipping, I expect we may see a similar bump in ST's under Shibest. I don't think it was particularly clear how much ST's had slipped the last five years. Even last year, Hughes and Slye were good kickers but just average in the ACC (which has had really good kickers recently across the board). Our return game has been just average for a while now. Blocking punts doesn't happen much by anyone these days, which negated some of our advantage (it seems there is more of a chance to block FG's these days than punts with the rugby and protector shields).
"May have" is key here. I don't think we have enough evidence to state that strength and conditioning has improved greatly yet. We know that they changed their goals to align with coaching philosophies and we know that "published" weights are encouraging. I hope you're right on both accounts though, as that would be great for the future of the program.
*preseason
Lawson flipped from Miami to VT because he didn't want to sit behind a guy. Now it looks like if he stays at VT he'll be sitting. That's where the talk of Lawson transferring comes from.
I understand where the talk comes from, but I think sitting behind an established starter with NFL potential is a lot different from sitting in a room with younger guys and being in the midst of an open QB competition. Lawson was promised a chance to compete (by the previous staff), that's all. What I don't understand is the message-board obsession with wondering about whether or not he'll transfer, which comes up every single time the QB competition or recruiting are mentioned. It's just kind of nuts. "If Lawson doesn't win the job, does he transfer?" "We just picked up another QB recruit, will Lawson transfer?" "Fuente said Motley had a good day at practice, will Lawson transfer?" This team's success doesn't hinge on Dwayne Lawson. He looks like a talented kid and I hope he gets a chance to show his stuff for the staff, and if earned, the fans. But beyond that, he's just another guy on our team fighting for a chance to play, at a position that is increasingly deep (a good thing, I think).
No, I don't think so. It'll probably be in the present.
Leg to VTFootballGrad for bringing up a very good question, as it turned out.
For the Hokies and Koma
Thank you so much for the quick turnaround!
I really love the effort that is put into TKP this is why I pay for this service you guys deserve it!
What I want to know is if Ellis is one of the recruits that Fuente referenced a couple of weeks ago that we had more news coming in the next week.
So is Ellis is one of them or do we expect two more? Tajh giving us a verbal and then possibly Devon Hunter would be freaking awesome.
It is believed by 247 crew that Ellis was the 2018 silent commit.
Nope not the silent2018 commit but a huge get. The one we are waiting on for 2018 is acting like a 16 year old and playing games but the 2017 silent commit is still strong
I believe you are wrong, hope you are right. :-) Edit- in regard to 2018 commit.
I have huge sources who say I'm right. And the one we are waiting on for 2018 is a wr/db (maybe)
No need to call people fat. We're all friends around here.
Also worth noting, we've secured commitments from Devante Smith and Sean Savoy, two others who shined at the Centreville Nike Open regional camp. There are two more on that list we need: Daniel George and Slade.
fixed that for you: "Got What (De) Juan-ted"
Phonetically that would be "Got whut kev-in-ted"
this took me longer than I'm willing to admit to get....but here, have a leg