Texas Tech football to host Virginia Tech grad transfer WR Eric Kumah

The Texas Tech football program is set to host grad transfer wide receiver Eric Kumah who played last year at Virginia Tech.

As the graduate transfer portal continues to change the landscape of college football, the Texas Tech football program has been trying to take advantage.   Last season, the Red Raiders welcomed defensive tackle Preston Gordon who transferred from Rice and next season, a power 5 conference wide receiver could make his way to Lubbock.

Virginia Tech wide receiver Eric Kumah has announced his intentions to leave Blacksburg and it looks like Texas Tech is one of the programs he is interested in.  In fact, according to his Twitter feed, he will take an official visit to Texas Tech on March 30th, which will coincide with the Lubbock spring scrimmage.  (Tech will hold an additional spring scrimmage on April 5th in Midland and one on April 13th in Frisco.)

In 2018, the native of Woodbridge, VA caught 42 passes for 559 yards and seven touchdowns making him the Hokies’ second-leading receiver.  The 6-foot-2, 225-pounder has hauled in 70 passes for 883 yards and nine scores in his collegiate career and could help a Red Raider team faced with having to replace its top two receivers from this season.

With the departure of Antoine Wesley to the NFL and the graduation of Ja’Deion High, Tech must replace 2,214 yards of production and 13 touchdowns.  The remaining wide receivers on the roster put up 1,312 yards and 11 scores in 2018 so someone will have to step up this fall.

Kumah could be a great option to help Tech replenish its corps of pass-catchers.  When he signed with Virginia Tech out of high school in 2016, he was rated a 3-star prospect by 247Sports.com and was the No. 90 wide receiver in the nation.   He held offers from Boston College, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami, N.C. State, Northwestern, Pitt, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wake Forest.

In addition to Tech, Kumah has set visits with Notre Dame and Penn State.  According to the site ND Insider, Irish head coach Brian Kelly has said that his team is not in the market for grad transfers but apparently there is mutual interest.  Meanwhile, Penn State will return its top two pass-catchers but one is a tight end.  The Nittany Lions did graduate their second and third-leading producers at the wide receiver position so Kumah could fill a need in Happy Valley.

It will also be interesting to see what the new Texas Tech offense looks like under offensive coordinator David Yost.  Last year, he guided Utah State to 47.5 points per game, second-most in the nation.

But the Aggies offense was vastly different from Texas Tech’s.  They ran the ball 480 times while attempting only 465 passes.  What’s more, Yost’s offense will feature a tight end for the vast majority of the snaps next year meaning there will be one less receiver on the field most of the time and there may be fewer balls to go around.

Kumah has not set a timetable for his decision and judging by the dates of his visits, he will not be joining his new team until the summer.  Time will tell if he becomes a Red Raider but it is a virtual certainty that Matt Wells and his staff will be active in the grad transfer market this offseason as they try to supplement the roster with one-year solutions to help them make it through their first season in the Big 12.