Archives Reprint

   Virginia Tech athletic director Jim Weaver considers Rod Council an "engaging" young man who could wind up on the Hokies football team despite his arrest.

    Council, a SuperPrep All-American defensive back from West Charlotte (N.C.) High School, orally committed to Tech last December. He was arrested on Jan.31 and charged with two felonies, and Tech opted not to sign him.

    Weaver said Tech has not closed the door on Council.

    "If you talk to all the people that visited with him, he was as good a person as a lot of us have visited with in many years," Weaver said. "He's the only person who didn't run when the police came ... as I understand it."

    Police told the Charlotte Observer that Council was arrested after he and an accomplice stole more than $16,000 worth of computer equipment from his high school. Police told the Observer that Council was arrested after he jumped out of a car and tried to flee on foot; the other suspect wasn't caught. Council was charged with breaking and entering and with larceny after breaking and entering.

    In March, Council was placed in a deferred-prosecution program that enables first-time offenders to avoid conviction. The charges will be erased from his record once he completes the program. His lawyer, Joe Ledford, said Wednesday that Council has not yet completed the program, which includes counseling, but he has finished 150-plus hours of community service.

    "We'll just have to wait and see how the situation ends up," Weaver said. "If his issue is resolved and there's nothing record-wise, then I think there will be a better chance for him. ... Obviously he made a mistake, but we'll have to examine the situation later. Obviously we're not taking him now."

    Weaver said there are no guarantees Tech will take Council.

    "It will be a value judgment in athletics," he said. "There will be a value judgment in central administration and there would be a value judgment, I would think, in admissions."

    Council wasn't allowed to finish his senior year at his high school, said Ledford, and instead finished at an alternative school. He said Council is "pretty remarkable."

    "This young man, even though he faced some really hard times in his life, continued to be the kind of kid that you would really want your own child to be," Ledford said. "This young man is polite. He is courteous. He is punctual. ... He made some really poor choices in associates and conduct and blames no one but himself."

    Holt had been warned

    Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said Justin Holt's March arrest for marijuana possession had "some impact" on his dismissal in early June from the men's basketball team but was not the main reason for it.

    Weaver said it was an athletic department decision to kick Holt off the team. Coach Seth Greenberg said last month the dismissal was for breaking team rules. Weaver said Holt was dismissed for conduct unbecoming the program. Weaver said the conduct did not result in an arrest, but he wouldn't disclose what Holt did.

    "He knew if anything else happened, he was done," Weaver said.

    Holt transferred to Tech from a junior college after the fall 2003 semester.

    Tranghese suggested

   discount for Hokies

    It was Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese's idea to give Tech a $400,000 discount.

    Weaver announced last month that Tech and the Big East, which had been at odds over $1.5 million that the league said the school must fork over, had reached a compromise. The school agreed to pay the Big East $1.1 million, which it will make in one lump payment in a year or two.

    Tech's deal for Big East membership required the school to pay the league $200,000 annually for five years beginning in 2000-01 and $300,000 annually for five years beginning in 2005-06. The $300,000 per year would have come out of revenue-sharing. The Big East still wanted Tech to pay the $1.5 million under the second part of the deal, but ACC newcomer Tech felt it shouldn't have to because it wouldn't be part of Big East revenue-sharing.

    Tranghese said he suggested $1.1 million instead.

    "Both sides recognized that Virginia Tech had a financial obligation," Tranghese said. "They were going to have to pay it over a period of time. I called Jim and suggested we look at a smaller amount that got paid in one lump sum. Virginia Tech liked the idea of being able to put an end to it and we liked the idea of putting an end to it.

    "It was a pretty amicable series of conversations between Jim and I, and Jim had to go back to his people and I had to go back to my people. We felt if we were going to ask them to pay it all in one lump sum that it would only be right to reduce it."

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