Dozens of 2016 Prospects Trek to Tech for One Last Week of Visits Ahead of Signing Day

With a massive snowstorm forcing a bevy of top recruits to scrap their travel plans to Blacksburg last weekend, this week represents Justin Fuente's staff's last, best chance to show off Tech's campus ahead of signing day.

Since he came on board in December, Fuente and company have kept up a grueling travel schedule to shore up Tech's 2016 recruiting class, making stops to see prospects all over the country. However, they've consistently tried to convince recruits to come to them before making their final decisions, and the last two weekends in January were supposed to give the staff two chances to welcome recruits to Southwestern Virginia.

But Winter Storm Jonas threw a wrench in the works, forcing roughly half a dozen recruits to postpone their visits to this week instead. While the Hokies surely would've liked to have spread things out a bit more, it means that campus will be positively packed with prospects giving Tech one final look before signing day.

In all, just over two dozen 2016 prospects confirmed to The Key Play that they'll be visiting Blacksburg this week — recruits marked with an asterisk are current Tech commits.

While the bulk of the visitors will arrive Friday and stay the weekend, three chose to make the trip Wednesday and stay through Friday — WR Rick Wells of Jacksonville, Fla.'s Raines HS, ATH Tyrrell Pigrome of Pinson, Ala.'s Clay-Chalkville HS and OG Dylan Powell of Hannibal (Mo.) HS.

All three were planning on visiting last weekend, but had their travel plans rearranged due to snow since they're not exactly local to Blacksburg.

So far, Pigrome says the visit is "going good," and that he's gotten the chance to take several tours of campus and spend time with some current players, including attending Wednesday night's basketball game against Louisville. Next, he'll head to Maryland for an official visit this weekend.

Ocho Pigrome looks good in VT gear. pic.twitter.com/I30bN7fIPW— Clay-Chalk Football (@CCHSfootbal) January 28, 2016

Powell says the trip is giving him a chance to evaluate "how comfortable I am" on campus, but he also has a busy schedule. He'll depart Blacksburg this morning to head to Stanford for a visit this weekend, and he says he hopes to make a final decision by Feb. 1.

Wells will also leave today, and he'll have plenty to think about following the trip as he weighs whether or not to remain committed to Florida. The trip will be his second time visiting with Tech's coaching staff in three weeks, after WRs coach Holmon Wiggins and DL coach Charley Wiles paid him a visit on Jan. 14.

The Hokies are also chasing one of Wells' teammates at Raines, DE JaQuan Bailey, and they're employing a similar strategy to lure him to Tech. Wiles, Wiggins and Fuente all had an in-home visit with Bailey on Jan. 26 that he calls "excellent" and now he's "excited" to return to Blacksburg.

The new family pic.twitter.com/HHnXMUJLD5— JaQuan BaiLey #9 (@j_bailey9) January 27, 2016

Bailey's visited Tech a handful of times now, but he says he has no plans to commit on this upcoming trip to Blacksburg. Instead, the former Florida commit says he'll likely wait for signing day to announce his choice of Tech, Tennessee or Iowa State.

Like Bailey and Wells, OLB Dominique Ross will also be making the trip from Jacksonville to Blacksburg. A player at the same Trinity Christian Academy that WR Isaiah Ford hails from, he also earned a visit from Wiles last week ahead of his Tech trip.

"He was talking about building a pipeline from Trinity to Virginia Tech and he was talking about getting me up there," Ross said.

However, one thing Wiles didn't touch on with the North Carolina commit is what position he might end up playing if he became a Hokie, and he's looking forward to hearing more on the subject from Tech on the official visit.

"I hope to learn how I'll fit into the defensive scheme, and how they'll use me," Ross said.

Ross says the trip will be his second to Blacksburg following an unofficial visit last offseason, but there's still plenty he wants to see in the area.

"I want to look at the education side of it, see the campus life, see how it is to be a student there," Ross said. "The first time I went, it was when the students were out of school, so I didn't get to see it with people around."

OT Thomas Hopple, a longtime Tech commit from Suffolk's Nansemond River HS, says he's looking for the same sort of experience on his official visit, as he wants to "just see what a college weekend is like in the offseason."

Hopple says he's gotten a visit from both Fuente and OL coach Vance Vice since the staff shakeup, but looks forward to meeting the rest of the coaching staff.

The new coaches have also paid a bevy of visits to ATH commit Jovonn Quillen of Hampton HS. Most recently, Bud Foster visited him on Jan. 26, but Quillen says he's seen "just about everyone" on the new staff, including Fuente earlier this month.

Overall, the brief chat left him feeling like Fuente is a "good guy" and "the perfect fit for VT," and now he's anxious for one last trip to Blacksburg before he puts ink to paper next week.

"I just wanna have a good time and hang out with the players," Quillen said.