Signing Day capsule: William Pritchard

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Virginia Tech has signed an offensive lineman whose senior year saw zero losses. Midlothian (Va.) Manchester's William Pritchard is signed.

The 6-3, 290-pounder helped lead his team to an undefeated state-title winning season this season, and he hopes for more of the same in Blacksburg.

Three-star, No. 18 player in Virginia, No. 26 offensive guard nationally.

Buffalo, Charlotte, UT-Chattanooga, UConn, Delaware, East Carolina, Elon, Fordham, Furman, Illinois, James Madison, Kent State, Marshall, Middle Tennessee State, Monmouth, Navy, Ohio, Old Dominion, Richmond, Southern Miss, Syracuse, Temple, Tennessee, Towson, Virginia, William & Mary

Pritchard picked up his Virginia Tech offer at the Hokies' satellite camp appearance at Randolph Macon College, and immediately VT vaulted to the top of his list, even though the likes of Illinois had already shown the faith in him to get on board. He named Virginia Tech to his top schools by the following week (along with Illinois, James Madison, Syracuse, and Tennessee), and within a month, he was ready to pick the hometown school. The Illini never gave up on recruiting Pritchard, but he stuck to the home-state school throughout.

Pritchard is a classic old-school lineman: it may not look pretty when he does it, but he gets the job done. He's at his best blocking the guy lined up across from him - he doesn't quite have the mobility to get out on the edge and block, or pull across the line, and he doesn't have to pass-protect a ton in his school's very successful run-heavy offense (or at least, the pass-blocking assignments are made a bit easer by the success of the run game). He is an adequate drive-blocker, but has the mentality to be a very good one with some more physical development. His pass protection will be a work in progress. He did show some explosive athleticism on the rare occasions he was asked to play defense (he simply wasn't needed there often for his dominant high school team), so there should be more to his game when he has time under a college staff.

Manchester finished as a 15-0 state champion. The run game averaged 7.3 yards per carry and the line didn't give up a sack. Pritchard added nine tackles (two for loss with a sack) on the other side of the ball, too.

Pritchard's most recent full-season reel comes from his junior year: