BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech football's Mike Villagrana has been named to On3's rising star personnel and recruiting staffer you need to know list, the publication recently announced.
Villagrana is in his first year as senior director of player personnel in Blacksburg under head coach Brent Pry, after serving as general manager at Marshall where he oversaw that school's recruiting, player personnel and roster management efforts along with head coach Charles Huff. Marshall's 2022 class ranked second in Conference USA in the On3 consensus rankings.
During his tenure at Marshall, he played an integral role in assembling the school's 2022 recruiting class, the highest-rated group in school history. He previously served as director of recruiting at Mississippi State, working under head coaches Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach. The Bulldogs' 2021 recruiting class ranked 26th in the country, while Villagrana helped keep a 2020 group intact after a coaching change, signing 24 out of 25 committed players to give MSU the nation's No. 28 class. Mississippi State's 2019 class ranked 24th in the nation and included highly-touted offensive tackle Charles Cross, one of the highest-rated recruits to ever sign with the Bulldogs.
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The Youngstown, Ohio native first worked with Pry at Penn State from 2015-17. Prior to departing for Mississippi State, he played a key role in assembling a 2018 recruiting class that ranked sixth in the country. That group included future NFL draftees, such as LB Micah Parsons (Dallas), DE Odafe Oweh (Baltimore) and TE Pat Freiermuth (Pittsburgh). Penn State's 2017 signees ranked 15th in the nation and featured NFL performers such as DE Yetur Gross-Matos (Carolina) and WR K.J. Hamler (Denver). Villagrana helped construct a 2016 Penn State recruiting class that ranked 20th in the country and produced eight current NFL players. He originally joined the Nittany Lions as an assistant recruiting coordinator in 2015, his first non-coaching football assignment.
Before working in player personnel, Villagrana was the wide receivers coach at Savannah State during the 2014 season. Prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Hampton in 2013 after serving as the Pirates' special teams coordinator from 2010-12.
Villagrana began his collegiate career as a graduate assistant for two seasons at his alma mater, West Virginia, where he secured his master's degree in athletic coaching education. He played on the defensive line and at tight end for the Mountaineers from 2003-07 and was part of squads that claimed wins in the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. His lone collegiate touchdown catch came against Virginia Tech in 2005. He joined the Mountaineers after playing at Boardman High School in Youngstown, Ohio.