Hamlette

Brooke Point's Isaiah Hamlette (left) will take his tackling skills to Blacksburg, along with 16 other top-state players.

Johnson

Hokies beat out Cavaliers for top in-state football recruits

Date published: 2/6/2008

BY JIM McCONNELL

Now more than ever, recruiting is the life blood of any big-time football program.

For most teams, recruiting begins at home.

On National Signing Day '08, however, the recruiting disparity between the Commonwealth's two Division I-A programs is as wide as it's ever been.

According to Rivals.com, Virginia Tech has secured commitments from 17 of the top 30 high school seniors in Virginia. The Roanoke Times credits the Hokies with 14 of the top 25.

U.Va., meanwhile, has just one player--Norview defensive end Klinton "Buddy" Ruff--on both lists.

Of the 30 players currently pledged to the Hokies, 22 hail from the Commonwealth. Fifteen of the Cavaliers' 18 prospective signees played high school football in states other than Virginia.

"I've always said we want to make sure we're recruiting the best kids in the state of Virginia, and if we got our share of those kids, we'll play for a national championship," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said last year.

Even when you allow for the fact that Beamer and his assistants were cultivating homegrown talent while Virginia coach Al Groh was still working in the NFL, numbers like that are alarming to Cavaliers fans already tired of losing head-to-head battles with their chief rival on the field.

It hasn't always been that way. Just two years ago, Virginia actually had seven in-state signees to only six for Virginia Tech. Last year, more than half of the Cavaliers' 24-man recruiting class was home-grown.

Groh insisted, however, that the lack of Virginia-based talent in this year's class was not a signal that the Cavaliers had permanently shifted their recruiting focus outside the Commonwealth.

"It always starts with trying to fulfill our profile from Virginia," he said. "This year there seems to be a smaller pool of guys who fit our model."

Groh's comments generated more than a little heat from message-board posters across Virginia. Offended at the suggestion that U.Va. knowingly avoided signing the Commonwealth's top talent, several posters said Groh was using the university's academic requirements as an excuse for the recruiting-trail whipping he took from Beamer and Co.

Locally, the sample size is smaller, but equally telling.

Three Fredericksburg-area seniors--Brooke Point teammates Donovan Miles and Isaiah Hamlette and Stafford's Jake Johnson--were offered scholarships by both Virginia and Virginia Tech.

STATE'S TOP-25 RECRUITS Virginia Tech 3. Dyrell Roberts, Smithfield WR 4. Ryan Williams, Stonewall Jackson RB 5. Vinston Painter, Maury OL 9. Marcus Davis, Ocean Lakes QB 11. D.J. Coles, Goochland WR 12. Bobby Massie, Liberty Christian OL 15. Randall Dunn, Ocean Lakes WR 16. Peter Rose, Amherst DB 18. Antoine Hopkins, Highland Springs DL 19. Isaiah Hamlette, Brooke Point DE 20. Derrick McCoy, Amherst WR 21. Lyndell Gibson, Salem (Va. Beach) LB 23. Jeron Gouveia, Stone Bridge DB 24. Jake Johnson, Stafford LB 25. Austin Fuller, Richlands WR Virginia 22. Klinton Ruff, Norview DL --Rankings compiled by The Roanoke Times

Date published: 2/6/2008