Virginia Tech has offered Joppa (Md.) Joppatowne 2026 defensive end Zion Elee. Here's a quick look at him.

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Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Wisconsin

Hailing from Northeastern Maryland, Elee is within the footprint, but sort of in the far reaches of it. That's given him the opportunity to schedule (or already take) visits to Maryland, Penn State, Syracuse, and others, but the Hokies should be able to get him to town shortly. Given the caliber of programs already after him, VT's chance will largely hinge on continued on-field progress. If the team looks good this Fall and he makes multiple visits by this time next year, it stands to reason the Orange and Maroon will be able to write their own destiny to an extent. It is worth noting that his primary contact thus far has been with non-coaching staffer Jan Johnson, so the relationships with the primary coaches will be important to build going forward.

At this stage, Elee's game is all about athleticism. He's still learning (and has a lot to learn) about how to maintain his level of production at a level where the opponents will have any sort of ability to slow him down. He's very fast - if not the quickest two-step sort of guy - and can sprint around the edge, change directions in pursuit, and make tackles. However, he tends to stand straight up at the snap, then shift gears into moving forward. If he can beat an opponent around the edge or simply push an offensive lineman (or a poor overmatched running back) into the backfield, he gets great pressure. That option won't be as available to him when he's playing against high-caliber opposition, and he'll have to work on his flexibility and hand technique to win one-on-one reps consistently when using tools other than his natural gifts. Of course, you can't just teach those natural gifts, so when he molds them from raw tools into finely-tuned pieces of a repertoire, the ceiling is extremely high.

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