UVa Targets Torchia

Virginia extended an offer on Sunday to Joe Torchia , a 6-5, 231-pound tight end prospect out of Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington, New Jersey. Torchia, who excels on the field and in the classroom, landed offers from Duke, Maryland and Virginia this past week and is seeing his stock rise as the Evaluation period begins.

As a junior last season, the then 212-pound Torchia was a difference maker on both sides of the ball for a team that captured its first ever state championship. At tight end, he finished the year with 20 receptions for 494 yards and six touchdowns. At defensive end, he finished with eight sacks on the year.

All of the schools that have offered – Duke, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan State, Nebraska, Rutgers and Virginia – see Torchia as a prototypical tight end. Queen of Peace Defensive Coordinator Gabe Infante certainly agrees with that sentiment.

“Absolutely,” Infante said. “I’ve talked to some guys that are either big wideouts who are projected as tight ends because they think they’ll put some size on them and they are athletic, or the other big tight ends who are not as athletic as Joe that project as tackles. Everyone I speak to is projecting him as a tight end. We split Joe out to get a size advantage. In the state game we put him in the backfield and leaked him out on a two-point conversion. I know a lot of people were impressed with that because he made a beautiful over the shoulder catch on that play. He’s such a mismatch and on this level he’s a real big mismatch. He’s got tremendous ball skills. You look at his film and he has exceptional ball skills. The most impressive thing about Joe on film is his frame. He’s going to be able to pack it on to 250 and I don’t think it’s going to hurt his mobility. There’s tremendous potential there.”

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