BOONE, N.C. — A fixture on "The Freaks List," App State's
Jalen Virgil has another top-five ranking in 2021.
Virgil is No. 4 overall and No. 1 among offensive skill position players on the national list from Bruce Feldman and The Athletic, marking the fourth straight year he's appeared in a ranking of the most-gifted athletes in college football.
Virgil enters his "super senior" year with 12 career touchdowns, including 10 among his 83 career catches that have totaled 1,210 yards. He has produced nine plays of more than 40 yards in his career, including a go-ahead 100-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter at Georgia Southern in 2020 and a 57-yard kickoff return at South Carolina to set up App State's last touchdown in a 2019 road win against the SEC program.
The speedy, powerful receiver and returner, who is 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, ranked No. 3 overall on "The Freaks List" in 2020 after being No. 15 in 2019 and No. 11 in 2018.
Virgil is behind only Alabama offensive tackle Evan Neal, Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson and Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton in an annual feature that aims to "showcase guys who generate buzz inside their programs by displaying the type of rare physical abilities that wow even those folks who are used to observing gifted athletes every day."
Virgil ran 100 meters in 10.29 seconds to place second at the 2018 Sun Belt Outdoor Championships as a late addition to the track team that year. He's added a sumo deadlift of 600 pounds to measurements of 40.5 inches in the vertical jump, 10 feet, 11 inches in the broad jump, 405 pounds in the bench press and 345 pounds in a close-grip bench press.
Virgil has averaged 14.6 yards per reception during his career with touchdown catches of 83, 73, 56 (twice), 54 and 53 yards for the Mountaineers. He's improved steadily as a receiver, notably making an acrobatic, diving, over-the-shoulder touchdown catch while keeping his feet in bounds at Marshall last season.
