URGENCY IN TECH FOOTBALL SHOWS IN RECRUITING HAUL

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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993                   TAG: 9302050021
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
URGENCY IN TECH FOOTBALL SHOWS IN RECRUITING HAUL
In the six weeks it took Virginia Tech to realign its football staff, more than a few Hokies fans wondered if it was possible to salvage recruiting.
Tech did not merely survive the shakeup. In many respects this recruiting class is as impressive as any among head coach Frank Beamer's seven.
Sure, there were the usual recruits who picked Tech over James Madison or Richmond. Tech should always beat a Division I-AA program for a recruit, even if it means just picking up the phone.
Make no mistake, Tech has made a living off lightly recruited players like Eugene Chung, a first- round National Football League draft pick who did not make the Roanoke Times & World-News Top 25. What set Tech's recruiting apart this year were the late recruits who picked the Hokies over some quality Division I-A programs.
If Tech hopes to reach the same level as Miami and Syracuse, eventually the Hokies must compete with those programs in recruiting. On a 10-point scale, if Miami's recruiting is a 10, then give Tech a seven. However, if 10 is the best the Hokies could do, then give them a nine.
One indication that Tech had a good year, by its standards, was the number of players it signed. The Hokies originally planned to sign no more than 16 or 17 recruits. When they signed 19, it meant either that some of Tech's returning players were in grade trouble or that the Hokies were on a roll.
"You want to have balance in your classes in terms of numbers," Beamer said Thursday, "but you never want to turn away a good prospect. We don't have a lot of seniors next year, so if things don't change drastically, we're looking at bringing in only 10 or 11 players [for 1993-94]."
Who could blame him? Beamer realizes that his program needs to show progress, or else he would not have made the staff changes. The future is now for his regime.
Virginia, on the other hand, could afford to sit at 13. Like Tech, UVa was prepared to sign 16 or 17 players. After some late setbacks, the Cavaliers presumably are in position to sign 18 or 19 next year, although coach George Welsh would not discuss the matter Thursday.
As of the last week in January, Virginia had 15 commitments. One week later, UVa was down to 13 commitments and had lost Lamonte Still, one of its top 1992 recruits, to poor grades.
The biggest loss was 6-foot-6, 300-pound Darryl Gilliam of St. John's in Washington, D.C. Gilliam was the impact defensive lineman that UVa has coveted, mostly in vain, since Welsh's arrival. He was one of five players who signed with ACC or Big East programs after being rejected by UVa's admissions office.
It appears the UVa football staff has been hurt by the departure of associate athletic director Jim West, who retired amid reports he had authorized loans to student-athletes. West was a former recruiting coordinator who served as a respected liaison to the admissions office.
Although the recruiting season ended on a sour note for Virginia fans, it was not a lost year. If the Cavaliers had signed Cornell Brown, which was a possibility until the last minute, they would have dominated the state as never before. As it was, they signed three players off the Roanoke Times & World-News Top 5 and seven off the Top 25, not counting quarterback Derick Byrd from Fork Union.
The biggest question facing the UVa staff is who will play quarterback? That wasn't going to be resolved in recruiting because nobody starts a true freshman at quarterback. One signee who could play immediately is Tiki Barber from Cave Spring in Roanoke because UVa has no proven punt returner and only two tailbacks.
Brown was Tech's first Top 5 signee since Maurice DeShazo in 1990, although tight end Bryan Jennings from Jefferson Forest would have made that group if he was a qualifier academically (he's close). Other signees to watch include junior-college defensive end Jim Baron; defensive back Korey Irby, who picked Tech over Michigan; and All-Group AA lineman Brad Baylor, who would like to have the same success as another Fort Defiance alumnus, former Tech basketball star Dell Curry.
One of the Tech coaches whose future was the source of some speculation, second-year assistant Todd Grantham, was the point man for Tech's recruiting of Larry Green and Willie Wilkins, first cousins from the Palm Beach, Fla., area. Both were ranked among the top 60 prospects in Florida, which is like being one of the top 15 in Virginia.
It's hard to remember a year when talent has been so diluted in Virginia. As of Thursday, 24 players had signed Division I-A letters of intent, down from 36 in 1992. Sixteen of the 24 went to Tech and UVa, probably the highest percentage ever for those two schools.
"Most of the kids visited here after things got settled," Beamer said. "I don't like the fact that we had to make staff changes, but you do what you think is right for the program and you can't sit around and wonder, `What if?' "

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB