Hokies Pitch Summer Visits to Top 2016 OT Prospects Landon Dickerson, Pete Leota and Patrick Kearns

With just one offensive lineman committed in the Hokies' 2016 recruiting class, it's a sure bet that Stacy Searels isn't satisfied yet.

Tech's staff was undoubtedly happy to add OT Thomas Hopple of Suffolk's Nansemond River HS to the fold back in March, but now the coaches are zeroing in on a trio of top recruits along the line to further bolster the team's front five.

Searels and the rest of the staff are hoping to keep the OL cupboard well stocked, and to that end, they're keeping up the pressure on tackles like Landon Dickerson of Hudson, N.C.'s South Caldwell HS, Patrick Kearns of Rome, Ga.'s Darlington School and Pete Leota of Asheville (N.C.) HS.

As Searels labors to keep in touch with each of the prominent OTs, his message is a simple one: come see campus.

Dickerson and Leota both say they're planning on returning to Blacksburg in July, while Kearns is fresh off his very first trip to see campus just a few weeks ago on June 15.

"I really liked it, it was just such a great college town," Kearns said. "They showed me around the new indoor facility, it was something else."

Once he was there, the team gave him a chance to sit down with the academic support staff — and they gave a presentation he called "impressive" — but the centerpiece of the the trip was some one-on-one time with Searels and Frank Beamer.

"I got to meet with Coach Beamer in his office with Coach Searels, they just reiterated how much they wanted me there, how I would be a good fit with them," Kearns said.

Searels in particular struck a chord with Kearns. The two first met back in May when Searels came up to visit his high school, and the pair bonded over their similar Georgia roots.

"He's really my kind of guy, a country guy like me," Kearns said. "I'd love to have him as my offensive line coach someday."

That would seem to be good news for the Hokies' chances, as Kearns stresses that a comfort with his future position coach is one of the main factors he'll be considering as he nears a decision.

"Academics is first and foremost, I want to see how a school can help me for the next five, 10, 20 years," Kearns said. "But the coaching staff is also important, just asking myself 'do I want to play for them?' And location is big, I want to stay as close to home as possible, but that's not a make or break thing."

Kearns will applying that particular set of criteria to a select set of schools in the coming weeks.

"I like all the schools that have offered me, but I've pretty much narrowed things down to Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Kentucky and Georgia Tech," Kearns said.

Kearns says he's now seen all but one of those schools, stopping by N.C. State immediately before going to Blacksburg and swinging through Atlanta two weeks back.

Now he's planning to head over to Lexington to complete the list on July 17, before he "probably" swings back to Virginia Tech on July 25.

Kearns has long maintained that he'd like to make his college choice in late July, and he says he largely remains on track for that self-imposed deadline, even if there is a little wiggle room in either direction.

"It could come even earlier, but it would be early August at the very latest," Kearns said.

Leota isn't nearly as rigid in his schedule for announcing, as he continues to tour the schools he's interested in.

The North Carolina native has been busy the last few weeks, taking trips up and down the East Coast, and he hoped to stop by Tech once again on June 23 before heading to Charlottesville to see UVA the following day.

Instead, a scheduling conflict with the coaching staff quashed those plans.

"I was going to go, but the coaches were off on vacation," Leota said. "So we just skipped Virginia Tech and went straight to UVA."

Now, Leota is planning another visit to Tech "sometime in July" once the coaches make it back to Blacksburg. In the meantime, he says the staff are "keeping in contact every week, every day sometimes," with Searels and Shane Beamer proving to be particularly attentive.

Nevertheless, Leota says the swing through the Commonwealth was still worthwhile.

"I like Charlottesville, it was a nice place," Leota said. "There were only two coaches down there at the time, but they did a great job of showing us around."

But Leota was still confronted by the traffic nightmare befuddling other Charlottesville residents that day: Sir Paul McCartney stopped by the city to play John Paul Jones Arena.

"It was really packed when I was there, since one of the Beatles was in town," Leota said.

Things were just as crowded when he visited Chapel Hill, but it was Leota's fellow high school prospects instead of McCartney fans occupying space on campus. The team held Larry Fedora's renowned "Freak Show" camp on June 20, and Leota took the chance to get another look at the Heels.

"I really loved campus, it's definitely one of my favorites," Leota said. "It was good to talk to their team and all the coaches."

Part of those conversations with the staff involved the latest round of NCAA charges pending for some of the program's academic practices. As might be expected, UNC's staff downplayed those concerns to Leota and the other prospects.

"We got to talk to the athletic director and all the coaches about the NCAA scandal, they called in my parents and grandparents for it," Leota said. "They tried to reassure me, saying it was all going to be fine, and that they were pretty sure there wouldn't be any penalties for them."

But predicting the whims of the NCAA is a tricky task, so Leota is keeping his options open.

He's hoping to "get back down to South Carolina with my dad," and could even take trips to Tennessee, Georgia and Auburn later this summer.

Yet Leota says his recent round of visits has done little to help him set a definitive decision date.

"I'll just make a decision when I feel like it," Leota said. "If I'm thinking about one school for a whole week and I feel sure, then I'll pull the trigger and get it done."

A decision looks to be similarly far off for fellow N.C. tackle Dickerson.

The rising senior is taking his time to swing through the schools he's interested in. After taking trips to Auburn and South Carolina in June, he's plotting out a few more visits this month.

"In the next couple weeks I want to get to Florida State, that should be July 15 or so," Dickerson said. "And I'd like to get up to Tech this month and see that new indoor facility. I'll try to get to Tennessee as well."

Dickerson has made plenty of trips to Tech over the years — he's been "six or seven times" now by his estimation — but the staff seems anxious for him to return and see that ballyhooed new facility.

"They really want me back there, really want me to see that indoor facility and hang around," Dickerson said. "It's always nice to go up there and enjoy myself."

But until he can make a return, Dickerson says he communicates with Tech's coaches "at least twice a week," as they try to earn a return visit from him.

Once he makes that next trip to Tech, he'll be able to compare notes with some of his family.

Dickerson headed up to the "Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge" camp in Baltimore June 5-7 and his parents decided to join him. Rather than heading straight there to meet him, Dickerson's parents chose to swing through Tech to get a glimpse of the new facility and ask some probing questions of the staff.

"They just wanted to ask about the education, academics, stuff like that," Dickerson said. "Just parent questions."

Dickerson says he has yet to set an exact date for a summer return trip to Tech, or any of the schools within a day's drive of his home in Hudson, N.C., simply because he can "just decide to go the day of and let the coaches know, there doesn't have to be a lot of planning."

For schools that are a little farther away, a little more advance word is required. That's why he's already set a pair of official visit dates, with plans to head to Michigan to see the Wolverines take on Oregon State, as well as a trip to Auburn for the Iron Bowl.

"I hope to take all five in total, but I'm not to sure about the other ones," Dickerson said. "I just want to see the ones that are too far away for me to see otherwise. Florida State might be in there as well."

Dickerson's focus on far-away schools means that he likely won't use an official to see Tech during the season, but that doesn't mean he won't head to a game in Blacksburg this fall.

"I've already decided I want to go to the Ohio State game," Dickerson said. "That's a big game for them, and I really want to see it."

Although he's already seen the atmosphere in Lane Stadium in his trips for a pair of games last season, the season opener against the Buckeyes will likely ramp up the intensity to previously unseen levels.

"It's always exciting up there, I've never seen anywhere else like it," Dickerson said. "But that game could take things to another level."