The 6-foot-4, 200-pounder just felt the Hokies are a slightly better fit then the other four contending schools: Florida, Maryland, West Virginia and Clemson.
“I think Virginia Tech had the complete package for Ike,” remarked Northwest head coach Randy Trivers. “It’s a great academic institution. I think it’s a place that has a tremendous amount of young talent in the program. It’s a program that has tradition. As a winning tradition it’s a program that has a great future because of the young talent. It’s also a program that has a lot of stability because of what Coach Beamer has built and Coach Beamer has had opportunities to go elsewhere and it’s a pretty safe bet that Coach Beamer will be there for Ike’s tenure at Virginia Tech. I think he feels from a quarterback standpoint he could have an opportunity to play early in his career.
“More then those things, I think he feels very good about the relationships that he has be able to develop with the coaching staff over the last couple of years. Certainly feels a certain comfort level and just a certain connection with the coaching staff and feels good when he’s around the players at Virginia Tech.”
With his recruitment over and Maryland’s West Regional Championship won, Whitaker now shifts his focus completely to helping Northwest win their bowl game this Friday. On the year, the Scout.com four-star prospect has compiled 446 yards and eight touchdowns on 64 rushes (6.67 average), while also completing 126-of-215 (59%) for 2,236 yards and 27 touchdowns.
Whitaker will be graduating in the spring and only plans to take an official visit to Virginia Tech.