Thoughts On Virginia Tech's Transfer Portal Exits

I hadn’t planned on getting into the recent tele-portaled Hokies just yet, but a few surprises have caught my attention. The overall number of entrants is sizable, especially considering so many are scholarship players (13). It is a new era where transfers are to be expected, but even in the new era the Hokies (so far) have more guys in the portal than just about every other ACC program.

But the quantity isn’t why I’m focused on the exits this year. This year is the first portal year where Tech has taken multiple big talent hits, with several likely starters for the upcoming season putting their names out there, and that catches my eye more than the numbers. As I write this late on Tuesday, 12/10, here are the most notable names to have entered:

Malachi Madison, DT

Madison was the first guy in the portal this year. He was part of a signing group that included Lemar Law, Gunner Givens, and Rashaud Pernell; it says something about that class that Madison might’ve been the most “successful” at DT for the Hokies. Madison seemed to be the most consistently disruptive of the group, at least in high school. All these recruits were pre-JC Price, which I’m guessing put them at a disadvantage, as the Hokies were going more for bigger guys who could overlap gaps, rather than ramrods to bust open plays. Madison finished with twelve snaps on the year; he saw action in a token appearance against Miami and a little more against Stanford.

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