ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512270059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Dec. 25.
Correction
The number of players who have committed to Penn State was
incorrectly reported in a story on the top high school football
prospects in Virginia, published in Sunday's editions.
Four players have given oral commitments to Penn State. They are:
Eric Sturdifen and Marcus McFee of Huguenot High School in Richmond,
Anthony King of Granby High School in Norfolk and David Macklin of
Menchville High School in Newport News.
THE RUNNING BACK from Powell Valley High School is first on the Top 25 list of recruitable players, 14 of which have already made oral commitments.
It is so far from the center of the state that, in some atlases, far Southwest Virginia requires its own page.
As far as college football recruiters were concerned, however, Big Stone Gap might as well have been the capital of the state this year.
Any college that recruits Virginia - and some that previously had not - made plans to watch Powell Valley High School running back Thomas Jones.
``We've had good players before,'' said Phil Robbins, a head coach in Virginia for 25 years, the past 13 at Powell Valley, ``but it still amazes me how the major colleges can find these kids.''
But, Robbins thinks Jones still was relatively unknown until he rushed for 462 yards against J.I. Burton High School of Norton as a junior.
``That's what blew the door open,'' Robbins said. ``We put together a highlight tape [that included] three quarters from the Norton game and sent out about 25 or 30 copies. All the coaches said the same thing: `We don't have to see any more. We're going to offer him''' a scholarship.
Jones, who didn't become a starter until his junior year but rushed for 7,193 yards and 105 touchdowns, is the most celebrated Group A player since the current classification was adopted in 1970.
The last Group A player to be ranked among the top five prospects in the state was Sussex Central linebacker Reggie Givens in 1988, and the last one before Givens was lineman Jerry Mooney from Clintwood in 1975. Jones is the first Group A player to be considered the state's No.1 prospect.
The Roanoke Times has selected a Top Five, a Top 25, a Second 25 and a Second 50 until this year. Although the players were listed in order of recruitability, this is the first year each player has been assigned a number.
The choices were based on interviews with 40 high school coaches, more than a dozen players and recruiters from the Division I-A programs that traditionally spend the most time recruiting in Virginia.
Mistakes are not uncommon, witness Virginia Tech defensive lineman Jeff Holland and Virginia wide receiver LaShawn Jones, both of whom received scholarships despite not being ranked in the top 100.
Jones and No.2-rated Brent Mueller, a defensive lineman from Robinson High School in Fairfax, are the only Top 5 players who have not announced a decision. Jones apparently is leaning toward Virginia after canceling a planned visit to Notre Dame.
Mueller, who created a mini-stir during the summer by eliminating the state schools, never has made a secret of his fondness for Miami. That did not change when the Hurricanes were placed on NCAA probation, but if everything is equal after his campus visits, Mueller says he will choose Georgia Tech for its academics.
Fourteen players on the Top 25 have made oral commitments - down from last year's all-time high of 17, but only slightly. The commitments are coming earlier and earlier; Virginia Tech, for example, had seven by the start of the school year.
Three of those were Top 25 choices - Lorenzo Ferguson, Nick Sorensen and Shyrone Stith - and subsequent commitments have given the Hokies a total of six Top 25 recruits, including Top 5 choice Robert Adams. The defensive end has drawn comparisons to fellow William Campbell High School alumnus Charles Haley, now with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, because of his pass-rushing potential.
Comparisons didn't hurt another Top 5 selection, Matoaca linebacker Byron Thweatt, who comes from the same school as 1992 Top 5 pick James Farrior. They are approximately the same size and they play the same position, and this week Thweatt announced he would be following Farrior to Virginia.
The other member of the Top 5, linebacker Eric Sturdifen from Huguenot High School in Richmond, is one of three Virginia prospects who have committed to Penn State. The others are quarterback and would-be defensive back Anthony King from Granby High School in Norfolk and kicker Marcus McFee, one of Sturdifen's teammates.
The only kicker among the Top 25 and the only Timesland-area player to make the team is Shayne Graham from Pulaski County. Graham took an official visit to Tech during the weekend of Dec.15-17 and is said to favor the Hokies, but he still plans to visit North Carolina and Virginia.
Tech and Virginia both are mentioned with seven of the 11 uncommitted players, but most seem to have a preference for one or the other. The Hokies appears to be the leader for defensive tackle Carl Bradley from E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, while UVa has the edge for Hampton defensive end Donny Green.
At least eight Top 25 selections have not met the new, stiffer NCAA admissions standards, including preseason All-American Plaxico Burress, who otherwise would be a Top 5 choice. Burress and Lanier Washington, named Sleeper of the Year after transferring from Wilmington, N.C., are fellow receivers at Green Run in Virginia Beach.
The NCAA has imposed a sliding scale for those would-be student-athletes who do not have at least a 2.5 grade-point average in a core curriculum of college courses or an 820 total on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT). For example, a prospect with 2.0 in ``the core'' is required to score 1,020 on the SAT.
As usual, it is difficult to differentiate between some of the academically questionable Top 25 selections and those players named to the ``Waiting List,'' whose members have almost no chance of receiving a Division I-A grant this year. Taking everything into account, it appears the 1995 recruiting class in Virginia is at least slightly below average.
``I'm not touching that,'' said one recruiter, but most scouts agree the 1996 class - rich in quarterbacks - will rank among the best in the state this decade.
An early list of the state's top 25 juniors has five quarterbacks, including James Boyd, who directed Indian River to the Group AAA Division 6 championship but likely will play defense in college.
For the second consecutive year, it appears the class of the class will be a running back, Phoebus High School's Antoine Womack, but life should return to normal in far Southwestern Wise County.
LENGTH: Long : 122 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Jones, Mueller, Sturdifen, Adams, Thweatt.by CNBcolor. Graphic: Chart. color.