If Pulaski County tight end Jeff King had a dime for every time he called me "sir" during his recent interview with HokieCentral.com, he wouldn't need to go to college. He would be rich already.

"Jeff has outstanding character," is the first thing Pulaski County Coach Joel Hicks says when asked about King, his rising senior tight end who has verbally committed to Virginia Tech. "He's a great kid."

Indeed. King, who is 6-6, 240, is a soft-spoken youngster who seems unaffected by a recent flood of offers from major college football programs that he had never considered or even talked to. The offers all came within the span of about two weeks recently, after Hicks sent out about 25 highlight tapes of King to Division 1A programs.

"I made a little film on him," Hicks explained, "and I took about ten or twelve of his best plays offensively and defensively (King also plays defensive end). I ran 20-25 copies off and I sent it to some Division 1 schools. I would send it to a school, and I'd get a phone call within three or four days, saying, 'We're going to offer this young man.'"

It helped that Hicks included King's other credentials along with the tape. Namely, King has a 3.7 GPA and has already logged a 970 on the SAT. "He will take it (the SAT) again and get over 1000," Hicks says matter-of-factly, "so he's a good student."

The next thing King and Hicks knew, King had received offers from Virginia Tech, Virginia, N.C. State, Michigan State, Vanderbilt, WVU, and Clemson.

That must have been some highlight film.

"You don't get that type of film until usually you're a senior," Hicks said. "You have to have film. Colleges can say that they're going to recruit great students, kids with great character, and all that. Sure, they're going to do that, but first of all, you've got to be a player."

King's flurry of offers is a testament not just to his own ability, but to the Pulaski County program and Joel Hicks, and it's also proof of how important a role the high school coach plays in a player's recruitment. King never lifted a finger to get recruited, and suddenly, he had his pick of schools.

But that's no surprise. Hicks came to Pulaski County in 1979 after spending three years as a WVU assistant coach, so he knows what college coaches and recruiters are looking for. And at Pulaski County, he's got the facilities to prime his players for Division 1A football, and to help them get scholarships. Hicks' Pulaski teams have averaged 8 wins over the last 20 years, won a state AAA championship in 1992, and should have won another one in 1993, to hear Cougar fans tell it.

The Cougars have a winning tradition, a weight training facility that is one of the best in the state, and good film production facilities. All of that, combined with King's own size and natural ability, means that he can make his verbal to Virginia Tech now, as he did back on June 7^th, and just work on getting better next year.

Surprisingly, King's decision to commit to Tech doesn't seem to have much to do with football. "One thing that Coach Hicks told me, if I wasn't going to play football, and I wasn't getting a scholarship to play, where would I go to school? And Virginia Tech would be the place I would go to school," said King, who wants to be Civil Engineering major.

As a matter of fact, when asked what other schools he was considering, King answered, "I was interested in the Naval Academy, too," and left it at that. So when the offer from Tech came in, it was a no-brainer, and not because he was all that big a Hokie fan. He just likes the Engineering school.

Despite living in Pulaski his whole life, King said, "I wasn't a big Tech fan. A lot of people around here are, but I wasn't a hardcore Virginia Tech fan."

There's no doubt as to what King's calling card is on the football field. "He's a blocking machine," Hicks reported. "That's how he got his scholarship, and that's why everybody's interested in him, because he's such a good blocking tight end."

King only caught one pass as a junior, but according to Hicks, "We're a wing-T team, and wing-T teams don't throw that much. But he'll be in our plans more next year. He has really improved his pass-catching ability. He's worked hard at it."

Last year, King was also the leading scorer on Pulaski County's basketball team, and in his first year shot-putting, he qualified for the state meet, although he didn’t place. He plans on doing both again as a senior, and he's got some specific goals in mind for basketball. "I'm 300 points away from 1,000, and 200 rebounds away from 500."

So what are his best assets as a football player? "First off, my size, and then my technique, and reacting to the ball. I've just got to work on my speed. We work out as a team twice a week, and I work out by myself twice a day."

Said Hicks, "You could see athletic ability in him defensively and offensively. The way Tech recruits, they recruit athletes, and you could see that on Jeff's film. And his physical toughness. He's a tough old boy. All he needs is strength. That's what he needs to carry that big old body around, and he's working on it. He's going to be big old boy. He's 6-6 right now, 240, and over a 300-pound bench press."

And Hicks isn't inflating those figures, either. Both he and King say that the 6-6 height and 240 pound weight are legitimate numbers. At that size, King could potentially weigh 300 pounds or more after working out in Tech's program for a few years, but his speed (he currently runs a 4.94 forty) could determine whether he is able to compete at tight end, or whether he'll move further down into Tech's offensive line, or perhaps even play defensive line for the Hokies.

"I think some people (coaches) are fighting for him defensively already at Tech. He's pretty talented," Hicks said. "To me, it's a good marriage. Tech is getting a good young man. Jeff's going to a fine place. They've got the Civil Engineering program he's looking for, their football program is at the top right now, they're 20 minutes away -- I really can't see him going any other direction. Seems to me like it's just meant to be."

What if those other schools come knocking in the long months between now and National Signing Day in February?

"I wouldn't have committed if it wasn't firm," King said.

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