Marshall picked up a major addition on Sunday when former four-star Virginia Tech safety C.J. Reavis became the 17th member of the 2016 class.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pound spent this past football season at East Mississippi Community College (Scooba, Mississippi) after being dismissed from Virginia Tech earlier this year for a student conduct violation.

Reavis played in 12 games as a freshman at Virginia Tech in 2014, mostly on special teams, and was projected to be a starter at safety for the Hokies in 2015 following spring practice and before his dismissal.

The Thomas Dale High School (Chester, Virginia) alum recorded 40 tackles and two interceptions in nine games at East Mississippi CC. Reavis, who has two years of eligibility remaining, will to look to shore up a Marshall secondary that will lose senior Taj Letman to graduation.

What does Reavis, who was rated as the 11th best safety in the 2014 class, bring to Marshall?

Reavis played at both corner and safety at East Mississippi, according to his Hudl highlights at the school, and showed promise at both positions. It is likely Reavis will stick with safety at Marshall.

Reavis demonstrated he can cover and has the physicality to provide run support. Reavis several times was in perfect position at corner to make a play and defend the pass. He simply didn’t get to the receiver at the perfect time with his back turned to the quarterback. He ran with the receiver and made a good read and turned his head to make the play. That is an extremely good sign for a safety to show he can cover like a corner.

Typically, safeties, and linebackers, are where opposing offenses want to expose match-ups. Receivers usually have the edge as safeties aren’t as good in man-to-man coverage as cornerbacks. But, Reavis has shown the ability to be good in man coverage which goes a very long way in being able to slow down opposing quarterbacks giving one less favorable match-up.

Reavis certainly has the physicality to be a very good college safety. He isn’t afraid to lay the hammer down and make a big tackle. He showed a couple times in his film the ability to make a read and provide good run support from his safety position.

The one aspect of Reavis’ game I was extremely impressed with was his ability to anticipate plays and quickly make the correct reads.

In a game against Itawamba CC, Reavis was playing corner on the X-receiver (on the line of scrimmage) with a slot (or y) receiver to the right of the X-receiver. Reavis was playing about six yards off of his man. At the snap the slot receiver took a step back and started to roll to the left to set up a screen pass. Reavis sniffed the screen out and took off toward the slot receiver and blew the screen pass up for a loss. He ran by his man who was unable to even reroute him.

The film on Reavis was kind of short (four minutes) due to multiple angles of various plays were shown. But, nonetheless his highlights showed enough for me to think he has a very good chance to make an immediate impact at Marshall in 2016.

He is physical, he is good in coverage and has a high football IQ. There is a reason why he was considered to be a starter for the Hokies heading into 2015 and it shows on his JUCO film.

Bud Foster must have seen something in Reavis for him to be a starter as a sophomore in his defense and the Marshall program will find out if Reavis is the real deal this spring.

Corey Bodden is an intern for HerdNation.com