5-star Safety Quin Blanding Commits to UVa

Quin Blanding

Junior Quin Blanding , a 6’2″, 195-pound safety prospect out of Bayside High School (Virginia Beach, VA), announced Wednesday afternoon that he will attend the University of Virginia. Blanding, who is rated a 5-star prospect by Rivals.com, Scout.com, and 247Sports.com, chose the Hoos over Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, N.C. State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and West Virginia.

The Virginia Beach star revealed his decision at a 2:30 p.m. press conference at his high school.

“My decision has been based not only on an excellent football program, coaches and staff, and its higher academic standards, but also on a personal level. I just know this is the right decision for me,” Blanding said during his press conference.

Continuing, he said: “I want to take this time to emphasize how great these past three years have been for me at Bayside High School. And although I still have one more year of high school, which I’m greatly looking forward to, I have decided to commit early. Having made this decision, I feel I’ll be able to concentrate more on my grades and in making, I hope, my last year of high school football successful and memorable for both myself and my teammates. It is with great anticipation and excitement that I’ll be committing to … the University of Virginia.”

Blanding is one of UVa’s most highly rated commitments in school history. Blanding is the most highly rated recruit to commit to Virginia since Eugene Monroe in the class of 2005. In addition to being a 5-star, he is rated the no. 4 overall player in the nation by Rivals.com. 247Sports (no. 7) and Scout.com (no. 10) have him in the top 10 nationally as well.

A standout on both sides of the ball, Blanding totaled 55 receptions for 1,035 yards and six touchdowns and racked up 111 tackles and had five interceptions last season as a junior. He said at his press conference that he will play free safety at Virginia, adding that he plans on wearing the no. 3 jersey, which was donned by his future position coach, former UVa star safety Anthony Poindexter.

Blanding may graduate early from Bayside and enroll at UVa next January, but nothing is definite at this time.

The Hoos now boast two commitments in the class of 2014. Victory Christian Academy (Lakeland, FL) defensive tackle Chris Nelson was the first rising high school senior to pledge. A few of the Hoos’ top remaining class of 2014 targets — Lake Taylor (Norfolk, VA) defensive end/tight end Jalyn Holmes and Bishop Sullivan (Virginia Beach, VA) wide receiver Jamil Kamara — were in attendance to watch Blanding’s announcement. UVa class of 2013 recruits Taquan “Smoke” Mizzell and Corwin “Turtle” Cutler attended the press conference as well.

Stay tuned for more from TheSabre.com, including an EDGE Sabre Scoop feature with quotes from Blanding, Kamara, Mizzell, Cutler, and more, as well as SabreTV video of the event.