Early Sunday afternoon, rising senior quarterback Andrew Ford revealed some important news via Twitter.
"After much thought and many prayers, I am proud to announce that I will be continuing my academics and athletics at Virginia Tech," he wrote.
Ford, a 6'2", 185-pound prospect out of Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill (PA), verbally committed the Hokies over Pittsburgh and Virginia according to PennLive.com. He visited Virginia Tech for the first and only time on June 2, which was the day of the football program's first one-day camp. He didn't fully participate in the camp but did work with offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler on the day.
His junior season, Ford threw for 2,940 yards and 43 total touchdowns (35 passing, 8 rushing). The lefty signal caller made a splash this April, winning quarterback MVP honors in the Nike Football Training Camp in Ashburn, Virginia. Ford beat out the likes of Georgia-bound standout Jacob Park and UNC-bound prospect Caleb Henderson for the honor, also earning an invite to the Elite 11 Quarterback Camp and Nike's The Opening in the process.
"I always knew I could play the quarterback position," Ford said in an interview immediately following the Ashburn NFTC. "[Cedar Cliff head coach Jim] Cantafio has guys in the NFL, and he says he has aspirations for me to be that next guy. I don't think he's one to be lying to me about it, so for me it's even better to come out and compete with myself and prove to everyone else what I could do."
Of competing with other top quarterbacks at the NFTC, Ford said: "I'm comfortable. I don't care the situation. I just have fun. I knew most of the other quarterbacks in my group from camp. It was just fun to compete, and when I compete I'm comfortable."
Ford is an important addition for Tech, which, over the course of the past week-and-a-half, saw three other top quarterback targets commit elsewhere. Mason Rudolph picked Oklahoma State, the aforementioned Park is now a Bulldog, and David Cornwell committed to Alabama. The Hokies now have 10 commitments in total in the class of 2014.
Ford says he plans to enroll at Tech in January of 2014.
Chris Coleman's Take
TSL Managing Editor Chris Coleman offered his impressions of Virginia Tech's quarterback commit.
" Andrew Ford isn't the biggest guy in the world, but he's big enough. His highlight tape shows very good pocket awareness. He steps up into the pocket and makes good throws while not losing his cool with multiple defenders around him. He doesn't have the rocket arm of David Cornwell, but it looks good enough to me. He's a good pickup for the Hokies. He's a borderline top 10 player in the state of Pennsylvania," Coleman said.
Coleman also believes that "Ford is an underrated prospect who would have picked up more offers this summer if he took more trips to camp."