Virginia Tech Transfer Portal Talk: January 1, 2025

With Matt Moore signing up to be the next offensive line coach at Virginia Tech and with the Hokies already snagging commitments from a couple of his former West Virginia players, I thought I would dedicate this week’s transfer portal article to offensive line recruiting.

There are hardly any teams in the country that couldn’t do better on the offensive line. There just aren’t that many big people who can move their feet in this world. Thus, the price of offensive linemen in the transfer portal gets driven up, and it’s up to each program to decide who it wants to conquer that challenge.

With the transfers of Xaver Chaplin and Braelin Moore – two starters with two years of eligibility remaining – Brent Pry didn’t just need a quality offensive line coach. He also needed an offensive line coach who could do more effective work in the transfer market than his predecessor Ron Crook. He found such a guy in Moore, who appears to be in the process of raiding his former school of players. It was certainly important that the Hokies get better, but if they could get better while hurting a border rival (even if the schools don’t play), then all the better.

Offensive guard Tomas Rimac followed Moore to Blacksburg. He was the highest-grading offensive guard in the Big 12 last season and his PFF grade was higher than any Virginia Tech offensive lineman. That’s a great start to this portal period.

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