Decision day for James Mitchell

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Virginia Tech will find out its fate with a top in-state prospect this afternoon when Big Stone Gap Union tight end James Mitchell makes his commitment.

Will it be VT, Duke, or Georgia? The staffs will be waiting until 2:30 p.m. to find out along with the rest of us. Mitchell will have a ceremony at Union High School with seemingly every media outlet in Southwest Virginia in attendance. You can watch the ceremony live at this link.

The 6-4, 210-pounder took official visits to Athens (Oct. 13), Blacksburg (Oct. 20), and Duke (Nov. 30) in the midst of narrowing a list of more than a dozen offers. South Carolina and Tennessee were included before he made the cut to three schools, with Clemson, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and West Virginia among those who didn't survive the first cut. Virginia Tech has long been considered the favorite for the No. 6 player in the state and No. 13 overall tight end in the nation. That became especially true after the Hokies' other top tight end target, Kyle Pitts (whose teammate Nasir Peoples is committed to VT) picked Florida.

Mitchell was a first-team all-state performer according to the Virginia High School League, and the area player of the year according to multiple local media outlets.

The Hokies are looking for a tight end in the 2018 class, and if they can land Mitchell, they won't have had to stray too far from their own backyard to find one. Redshirt sophomore Chris Cunningham and true freshman Dalton Keene earned the majority of the reps this season, while WR/TE hybrid Drake DeIuliis redshirted. Mitchell could play a major role from day one as a pass-catching tight end, whereas Cunningham and Keene made their bigger impacts as blockers this year.

Should VT reel in Mitchell, he'd become the seventh four-star player in the Class of 2018.