ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: College Notebook
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
Virginia Tech football recruits Ike Charlton and Anthony Midget are unlike many of their fellow high school quarterbacks.
They have little interest in playing the position in college.
The opportunity to play in the secondary was important to Charlton and Midget, who will be joined by Midget's teammate, Phillip Summers, as three of the cornerstones in the rebuilding of Tech's secondary.
The Hokies lose only free safety William Yarborough from the secondary that started in the Sugar Bowl victory over Texas, but cornerback Larry Green, rover Torrian Gray and top backup Antonio Banks will be seniors in the fall.
Summers was a first-team All-State selection at Clewiston (Fla.) High School, but may have been the least heavily recruited of the three. The only official visit Summers and Midget took was to Virginia Tech, but Midget also was pursued by Miami, Auburn and Pittsburgh.
Charlton, from Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Fla., visited Tech and Auburn before canceling trips to Kentucky and Syracuse. Florida also had maintained contact.
``They [the Hokies] lost a free safety; that's what they recruited me as,'' Charlton said. ``With Syracuse, it was either quarterback, wide receiver or free safety. Nobody but Tech could make up their mind.''
Charlton had close to 1,500 yards in total offense while operating an option attack, but he doesn't want to play quarterback at Tech and ``didn't want to play it in [high] school,'' he said.
Like Charlton, Midget played virtually no defense this season and may not have been playing his best offensive position. ``If we had somebody to throw to him, he could have been one of the best receivers in the state,'' coach Al Morrell said.
Charlton, recruited for Tech by Bud Foster, and Summers and Midget, the responsibility of Todd Grantham, are the first players from Florida in a Hokies recruiting class that now numbers 22. All three are in the 6-foot, 180-pound range.
Tech can sign at least five more players - two junior college transfers count against the 1995 limit - and there is a chance one or more recruits may wait until January 1997 to enroll. In that case, they would count against the 1997 limit.
COUGARS LEGACY: Shayne Graham, who recently made an oral commitment to Virginia Tech, will be the seventh Pulaski County kicker to play collegiately since coach Joel Hicks' arrival in the late 1970s.
``Graham's the best,'' Hicks said of the USA Today second-team All-American. ``You've got to call it like it is. He's more accurate. Chris Kinzer was accurate, too, [but] Shayne, as far as distance and accuracy, is the best we've ever had.''
Kinzer and another former Cougar, Mickey Thomas, kicked for Tech in the 1980s. Other Pulaski County alumni who have kicked collegiately include Perry Reece (Ferrum), Charlie Bryant (Ohio), B.C. Clark (James Madison) and Tony Powell (Ferrum).
RUTGERS ON REBOUND: Things might get worse before they get better for Rutgers, which loses quarterback Ray Lucas, running back Terrell Willis and All-America tight end Marco Battaglia from a team that finished 4-7 this past season.
``We are probably as far behind as a university could ask to be as far as recruiting top players from the Eastern region,'' said new coach Terry Shea, who has repeated predecessor Doug Graber's vow to recruit more effectively in New Jersey.
Newspaper accounts of Shea's hiring indicated he turned down the Duke job in 1994, before Fred Goldsmith was hired. Shea incorrectly figured he would succeed then-boss Bill Walsh at Stanford.
CURRY A SURVIVOR: Of the 24 first-round picks in the 1986 National Basketball Association draft, former Virginia Tech standout Dell Curry is one of only six members of that class currently on an NBA roster.
That class, profiled in the current issue of Sports Illustrated, could be down to five if Cleveland's Brad Daugherty does not return from a career-threatening back injury. There were seven until Scott Skiles retired last week.
Only Daugherty, Ron Harper and Chuck Person have a higher career scoring average than Curry, who has scored 12.8 points per game despite spending most of his career as a sixth man.
WOLFPACK SEARCHING: North Carolina State not only carries 16 players on its men's basketball roster, but 10 of them are averaging more than 10 minutes per game.
The Wolfpack (9-4) suffered a blow when 6-8 senior Marcus Wilson, who started the first seven games, was lost for the season after suffering a ruptured Achilles' tendon against Massachusetts during the Rainbow Classic.
Among four players who became eligible for N.C. State after the first semester was 6-9 Marco Harrison, who began the school year at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia.
Harrison was 4-of-20 from the field in his first six games for the Wolfpack. Harrison, from Petersburg, was named Mr.Basketball in Virginia for 1994-95 by The Roanoke Times.
AT WIT'S END: Liberty has announced 6-9 freshman Stephen Bami will be redshirted while the school attempts to have his full, four years of eligibility restored.
Coach Jeff Meyer said Liberty has been frustrated in its dealings with the NCAA Clearinghouse, which has been unable to render a decision on Bami, who has shortened his name from Bamigbola since leaving his native Nigeria.
Meyer is not the first coach to have problems with the clearinghouse; however, at least part of the problem is the inability of West African officials to provide academic documentation.
AROUND THE STATE: William and Mary had lost 18 consecutive games to James Madison before routing the Dukes 96-71 on Saturday night in Harrisonburg.
Robert Shelton, a former All-Group AA selection at Louisa High School, is sitting out the 1995-96 season at Virginia Commonwealth after transferring from Ohio State.
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