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Football Recruiting Update by Will Stewart, TechSideline.com, 2/5/03 Hokies Sign 23 to Letters of Intent The Virginia Tech Hokies signed 23 football players to letters of intent today, bringing in one of the most highly-rated recruiting classes -- if not the most highly-rated class -- in school history. The class is headlined by the number one player in the state, linebacker Xavier Adibi. Technically, Virginia Tech only signed 20 players today, because three of the class -- OL Tripp Carroll and safeties Corey Gordon and James Griffin -- had previously signed and are currently enrolled at Virginia Tech. In addition, as many as five of the players in this class of 23 will enroll in January of 2004 or later and will count against next year's class (more on that later). Yesterday, with the commitment of Adibi, the Hokies had a list of 21 verbally committed players. The Hokies lost out on Robinson (Fairfax, VA) athlete Chase Anastasio yesterday afternoon, and that opened the door for Delray Beach, FL wide receiver David Clowney to receive a scholarship offer from VT, which he accepted to become commitment #22. Early this morning, Bethel (Hampton, VA) defensive end Chris Ellis committed to VT and FAXed in his letter of intent (LOI), making him commitment #23. To our knowledge, that concludes Virginia Tech's 2003 recruiting class, though the Hokies have been known to add players within a few days after signing day. That's not likely to happen this year, though, because 23 players is a larger class than anticipated, and the VT staff probably won't add any more players. Adibi, Ellis, and Western Branch (Chesapeake, VA) LB Vince Hall give the Hokies three of the top four players in the state of Virginia, as rated by TechSideline.com and by The Roanoke Times. The Hokies outrecruited rival Virginia in-state, signing 12 of the top 40 players in the state, versus nine for UVa. The Hokies got six of TSL's top 10 in-state, versus just two for Virginia. In addition to the 12 from the top 40 in-state list, the Hokies signed ATH DJ Parker from Phoebus, and they also signed postgraduate prep players Josh Hyman (FUMA) and Michael Hinton (Hargrave Military Academy). Out of state, Tech snared four from the state of Florida -- Carroll, Gordon, Clowney, and Palm Beach Gardens LB/DE Michael Brown -- plus one each from Ohio, California, North Carolina, and Washington DC. Of the 20 recruits who are not yet enrolled, LB Brett Warren and RB Kenny Lewis are likely January enrollees. OL Nick Marshman is a possible January enrollee, and DJ Parker and QB Cory Holt will both go to prep school. Holt will prep at Hargrave Military Academy for at least six months with a planned January enrollment at Tech, while Parker will probably attend Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA) for a full year and enroll in Fall 2004. That means that as few as 15 players might enroll at Tech in the fall, with up to four more coming in January 2004 (Warren, Lewis, Marshman, Holt) and one in Fall 2004 (Parker). Please note that a lot of this info is conjecture and preliminary information, and is subject to change as VT coaches review their player needs and make personnel decisions. Here is a list of the signees, sorted by position. Each player's name is a link to their TSL recruiting database entry.
Hokie fans (and others reading): I wanted to take a few moments to thank everyone for their enthusiastic and positive response to our new subscription offering, the TechSideline Pass. This year was our first foray into pay recruiting information and message boards, and we feel that things went pretty well. We had our rough spots, most recently with server performance in the last couple of days, but today went very well, and overall, we're pleased. We thank you for your patience during some of the crazy times the last week. Our new recruiting database held up well and received positive reviews. And for a guy who entered the game late, new in-house recruiting specialist Chris Horne did a good job establishing relationships with coaches and players and getting the scoop on a number of recruits. Moving forward from here, we'll be bringing you more recruiting-related articles, starting tomorrow. We'll break down the class by the numbers, and Chris will bring you his thoughts on how the Hokies filled their needs, who his sleeper recruits are, who his top five recruits are, etc. In the coming weeks, we'll bring you in-depth profiles of the 2003 signees, letting you know what they're like as football players and as people. Chris will also get an early start on next year's class, so that TSL's coverage of the 2004 recruiting class is even better than what you saw this year. Thanks for being part of our wild ride over the last few weeks, and we look forward to Spring Football and the 2003 football season.
And don't forget to shop at TechLocker.com, plus keep up with our list of sponsors and give them your business whenever possible. Thank you, Will Stewart
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