ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996 TAG: 9611290030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
Coach Joe Lanford could sense that some Division I-A football program was about to jump at Caroline County High School star Reggie Samuels and Virginia Tech was the one.
Samuels, a 6-foot-1, 175-pound quarterback and defensive back, has become the eighth player to make an oral commitment to the Hokies.
``Tech was the first team to offer him,'' said Lanford, under whose direction Caroline County improved from 0-10 last year to 6-4, ``but there's been an awful lot of interest in the last few weeks, a lot of interest from teams in the ACC.''
Lanford said Samuels has been timed in a 40-yard run in 4.38 seconds and probably will play safety for the Hokies.
``They're probably not going to use him at quarterback,'' Lanford said, ``but, he's got some potential there. I just saw him improve so much. If nobody had picked him, I was going to recommend that some prep school look at him as a quarterback.
``He's also got great hands and he's a heck of a return person. He's a tough kid who could play a lot of places. We mostly used him at quarterback because we were scared he might get hurt if we played him anywhere else.''
Samuels, who already has qualified for freshman eligibility, has close to a 3.0 grade-point average and nearly 1,000 on the Scholastic Assessment Test. Larry Austin, another defensive back who committed to the Hokies this past weekend, has a 3.6 GPA and 1,020 on the SAT.
Austin was one of two players to take official visits to Tech this past week. The other, James Mungro from East Stroudsburg, Pa., is described as ``the top-rated running back prospect in Pennsylvania and the Northeast'' in The G&W Recruiting Report.
LENGTH: Short : 40 linesby CNB