Raymon Minor Selects Virginia Tech

Raymon Minor of Benedictine College Preparatory (Richmond, VA) signed with the Hokies this morning. Minor, who stands 6-foot-3-inches tall, and weighs approximately 215 pounds, is rated as a 4-star prospect by both Rivals.com and 247Sports. He's an athlete who projects to play whip or backer, but is skilled enough to play wide receiver or even H-Back for Tech. According to Benedictine coach Greg Lilly, Minor had more than 20 scholarship offers, including Ohio State, Clemson, and Miami.

There are more highlights available on his Hudl.

Given his versatility, something to watch will be on which side of the ball the coaches slot Minor. The immediate need is at the linebacker position, where Virginia Tech doesn't currently have much experience outside of Ronny Vandyke and Chase Williams. At Benedictine, Minor played in a similar alignment to a whip linebacker and tallied 54 total tackles, 11 for loss, last season. He aligned mostly to the wide side of the field and either way wide or deep. This space makes him sort of a free hitter, similar to a whip. He used his closing speed, athleticism, and the distance that comes from the alignment to avoid blockers and make tackles in space. However, given his size, Minor is big enough that he could grow into a backer. He has a very similar body type to Tariq Edwards, and Minor looks a bit more athletic. To play the backer spot, he will need to be effective at taking on blocks at the point of attack, and it is hard to measure his effectiveness against good blocking based on this film.

Minor was also the primary wide receiver for Benedictine. He caught 28 passes for 570 yards last year. He is a hands catcher that is very smooth stretching east-west and then turning north to get behind linebackers on wheel routes. As a big, athletic receiver, he also demonstrates the ability to win 50/50 jump balls on go routes. His intermediate route running (outs, curls, crossing routes) would likely need some work, but he would be very effective being utilized a small H-Back against linebacker coverage. Interestingly, the other team contending for Minor's services (Marshall) had tremendous success throwing to Gator Hoskins. Hoskins has a very similar body type and speed to Minor..

Welcome to HokieNation Raymon!