Virginia Tech Freshman Tight End Wilfried Pene Unable to Report to Camp Due to Coronavirus Travel Restrictions
The 2020-21 college football season is very much up in the air due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic, but until college football programs are told otherwise, it is business as usual (sorta).
Falling in the "business as usual" category is the fact that Virginia Tech's incoming freshman football players reported to Blacksburg on Monday afternoon to begin preparing for their first collegiate football season.
Tech Football's official Twitter account released a video with messages from the incoming freshman football players on Tuesday afternoon:
Among those in the video was 3-star tight end Wilfried Pene. Pene, a native of France, signed with Virginia Tech in December and was hoping to be in Blacksburg for the beginning of summer workouts this week.
However, Pene mentioned in the video message that he was not in Blacksburg yet but hoped to be able to join his teammates soon. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, Pene has been unable to enter the United States from France, and will not be able to travel to Blacksburg for the foreseeable future.
So if Pene is unable to enroll and can't take classes at Virginia Tech, what is next for the incoming freshman tight end?
One option Virginia Tech could elect to use is a greyshirt on Pene.
For those unfamiliar, programs will use a greyshirt on a player when an incoming college freshman postpones enrollment in classes until the second term of freshman year. This could be used for a number of reasons - but is used most frequently if a student-athlete has academic eligibility issues with their respective university.
This means that Pene would not enroll at Virginia Tech until at least the winter term, and would be ineligible to play this fall if a season were to occur.
This may not matter anyway with the season up in the air, but especially with Pene's current travel situation and the fact that he cannot enter the United States.
We'll have more updates on this story as information becomes available, but as of now, don't expect Pene on campus anytime soon - through no fault of his own.
