Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 8, 1993 TAG: 9304080050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TECH RECRUITING QUESTIONED
MARYLAND RAISES issue after learning a former Hokies player visited prized football recuit Cornell Brown.\ The Big East Conference, on behalf of Virginia Tech, has written a letter to the NCAA to answer questions raised by the recruiting of Cornell Brown.
Brown, an All-Group AAA linebacker from E.C. Glass High in Lynchburg, picked Tech over Maryland and Virginia. He was rated one of the top five football prospects in the state by the Roanoke Times & World-News and was selected to several All-America teams.
"I don't think it's a big deal," said Virginia Tech athletic director Dave Braine, who asked the school's compliance officer, Steve Horton, to review the situation after receiving a call from Maryland athletic director Andy Geiger.
Maryland officials were disturbed after reading comments attributed to former Virginia Tech football player Calvert Jones in the Hokie Huddler, a Tech publication.
Jones, an E.C. Glass graduate, said he drove from Blacksburg to Lynchburg on the morning of Feb. 5 - five days before letter-of-intent signing day - after hearing Brown was leaning toward Virginia Tech.
"What I did was call Dave, as I would expect him to call me, and we were out of it," Geiger said Wednesday. "Dave told me, `We've reported a [possible] secondary violation,' and that's what I would consider it.
"We had vigorously recruited Cornell Brown - there are some who said he had verbally committed to us - but we're not trying to get back into recruiting him. It's case closed from our end. We hope he has a great career there."
Jones, who completed his eligibility at Tech this past fall, talked to Brown for about 30 minutes at Glass.
"I didn't talk to him about going to Virginia Tech," said Jones, who began his career at Pittsburgh before transferring to Tech in 1990. "The misconception is that I told him to go to Tech. I just didn't want the same thing to happen to him that happened to me."
A player is not allowed to make off-campus contact with a recruit, although the NCAA manual makes exceptions for an established family friendship, Horton said.
"Just because your school is recruiting somebody, it doesn't mean you have to stop being friends," Horton said. "But you're [the friend] not supposed to actually recruit the player. That's the issue."
Horton said it is Tech's opinion that Jones was trying to espouse the virtues of staying in state.
"There's a gray area there," Horton said, "but he was not sent up there. We know that. That would have been a blatant violation."
Jones played at Glass with Brown's older brother, Reuben, and served as Reuben Brown's host on his recruiting visit to Pittsburgh, where he eventually signed.
"I'm very upset," said Jones, who called the Roanoke Times & World-News on his own. "It upsets me that Tech has to go through all this. I've known Cornell since he was a freshman [in high school].
"I went home to talk to him. Nobody asked me. Nobody told me. Nobody suggested to me. It was done all right and by the book. I've got nothing to run or hide from."
Tech coach Frank Beamer said he was unaware of Jones' trip to Lynchburg.
"I would have said, `Let's check the rules,' " Beamer said. "I don't feel like we did anything wrong. The fact it was in the Hokie Huddler shows we weren't trying to hide anything."
Jones said he still would do nothing different.
"I went home as a friend, not as a Virginia Tech salesman," said Jones, who is from Lynchburg and frequently goes home on weekends. "I wanted him to come here, of course. But I told him, `Cornel, if you don't go to Virginia Tech, I'll be happy if I pick up the paper and read that you're signing with Virginia.' "
Brown verified Jones' version of the conversation.
"He just explained the advantages of staying in state," Brown said. "He said Virginia Tech had been great for him, but [the talk] wasn't that much of a factor. Maryland was still my top school after I talked to Calvert."
Glass coach Bo Henson said Brown's mother, Oglessa, was the major factor in keeping her son in state.
"I can honestly tell you, from Friday until Wednesday when Cornell signed, Calvert's name never came up," Henson said.
Horton said correspondence was sent to the NCAA approximately three to four weeks ago, but there is no timetable for a response because director of eligibility Janet Justus has added new responsibilities that have caused a case backlog.
"We talked to the Big East and it looks like no problem," Braine said. "But we wrote it up anyway and sent it to the NCAA just to cover all bases."
Maryland sources said they did not expect Brown to lose any eligibility.
"I was a little disappointed in Maryland that [the Terrapins] have made such a big fuss about it," Brown said. "But, in a way, it's kind of flattering that they thought enough of me to go through with this."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***