HOKIES, CAVS PICKED CREAM OF THE CROP FROM STATE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202080019
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
HOKIES, CAVS PICKED CREAM OF THE CROP FROM STATE
Every college football staff has a blackboard or bulletin board on which its prospective recruits are divided into two lists, one for the players to whom it will offer scholarships and the other for prospects who are on hold.
Those are the lists that ultimately determine how a team evaluates its recruiting effort. Head coach Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech can be pleased that most of the Hokies' signees came off the first list and few - if any - from the second.
Conventional standards do not always apply in judging Tech's recruiting. If you look only at who the Hokies beat for some of their signees, there might be cause for alarm. Tech might beat Notre Dame or Penn State for a player once every 10 years.
So, why try?
One of the best things Tech does in recruiting is target those players it has a realistic chance of signing. And the Hokies are always ready for the rebounds, such as Tim Wade and Matt Morrell. Wade, rated one of the top 25 prospects in Virginia by the Roanoke Times & World-News, did not have Tech on his list as of Jan. 15.
Wade and Morrell each was considered among the top 10 prospects in the state before the season. Wade was thought to be headed to Notre Dame; Morrell admitted his favorite was North Carolina. When both became available late in the recruiting process, Tech wasn't caught napping.
The Hokies signed eight players off the Top 25, one off their record nine of a year ago. Virginia signed nine Top 25 players, its high, and together the state's two Division I-A programs bettered their previous high of 16 set in 1991. Add Anthony Smith, who signed with Hampton, and 18 of the state's top 25 prospects stayed in state.
No other program signed more than one Top 25 prospect and, for the second year in a row, North Carolina didn't get any. North Carolina has recruited better in its own state since Mack Brown's arrival four years ago, but nobody could argue that the Tar Heels aren't finding the competition stiffer north of the border.
There is reason to believe that UVa had its best recruiting year ever, with seven signees who made All-America teams selected by either SuperPrep magazine or Prep Football Report, two of the leading recruiting sources. In addition to its in-state recruits, UVa signed four players ranked in the top 25 in other states.
A final evaluation of UVa's year will have to wait on the eligibility of tailback Lamonte Still, who set single-season and career records for rushing yardage in the Tidewater area. Still, who eventually could replace Terry Kirby, is one of two UVa recruits out of 25 who have not yet qualified for a grant-in-aid.
At least four Tech recruits out of 21 are awaiting results of the Scholastic Aptitude Test in January to learn if they have qualified. Included in that group are Waverly Jackson and Eugene Mays, who would provide the Hokies with some much-needed bulk along the defensive line.
Tech redshirted all 22 of the freshmen it signed in 1991. It wouldn't be surprising to see some of the linemen, like 6-6, 325-pound T.J. Washington, play next year. Tailback recruits Tommy Edwards and Ken Bailey will be needed the next year, when latter-day stallions Tony Kennedy and Vaughn Hebron will be gone.
It was Tech's first recruiting class as a football-playing member of the Big East Conference, but few of the signees mentioned the Big East. The Big East will help Tech in recruiting if Tech can win in the Big East; win as an independent and all you get are scheduling nightmares.
Membership in the ACC didn't help Virginia's recruiting for 30 years. Only when the Cavaliers started winning did they start getting better players.
Many had questioned how reports of loans to student-athletes would hurt Virginia's recruiting. As far as I can tell, the loans didn't make any difference. UVa gave out the maximum allowable grants-in-aid, 25, but sources indicate there was no discussion of stocking the cupboard before the NCAA hit town.
Both Tech and Virginia are at the limit, 92, for scholarship players in the program. That should say something. If they didn't like the players they were getting, they would have saved some grants for 1993, when the limit drops to 88.
\ AUTHOR Doug Doughty has ranked the top 25 football prospects in Virginia since 1984.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB