Former Virginia Tech deep snapper Steve Hale is reasonably certain that he will never go into the Hokies' athletic hall of fame, but he can always say he replaced a hall-of-famer.

Don Divers, who has served a liaison between television producers and the officiating crew at Virginia Tech games, is scheduled for knee-replacement surgery Oct. 21 and is turning over his red hat to Hale.

Hale did his training with Divers at the Hokies' game Sept. 13 with Georgia Tech and will be going solo Saturday when Western Kentucky comes to Lane Stadium.

The "red hat," as the person in Hale's position is known, is in charge of coordinating the TV timeouts that often irritate spectators.

"He's definitely not the most popular guy," Hale, a Patrick Henry High School graduate, said, "and, in my brief training, I probably witnessed one of the red hat's worst moments.

"They went to commercial just as Tech was attempting a field goal to tie the game. The [Hokies] came back quicker than they should, so they had to stand there for two minutes till the TV timeout was over.

"I got an earful from [Frank] Beamer, from Billy Hite, from all of them."

Hale is an avid golfer, as is Divers, who is in Tech's hall of fame as a two-way football standout. They met at Hanging Rock Golf Club. It turned out that they had parking spaces in the same lot outside Lane Stadium.

"He told me about the job and I told him, 'If you ever step down, I'd love to have the chance to succeed you,'" Hale said. "Don has hopes of coming back next year and he recruited me because he knew that I would let him. Eventually, I guess, I would do it full-time."

Hale doesn't expect he'll have any trouble coming out of the stands because, as a former player and assistant coach, he is more of a student of the game than some of his more boisterous fellow spectators.

"I also officiate college and high school wrestling," said Hale, who spends his weekdays as an account manager for Proctor & Gamble. "I've found I have the ability to be impartial if necessary."

Lalich sighting

So much for needing to go out and woo prep recruits. Oregon State football coach Mike Riley joked to reporters that "the recruiting stuff is overrated" after former Virginia quarterback Peter Lalich fell into his lap. Lalich began classes in Corvallis, Ore., this week.

According to Paul Buker's blog on the Portland Oregonian newspaper's Web site, Riley was alerted to Lalich's availability by West Coast quarterback guru Roger Theder, who was the head coach at California when Riley was a Golden Bears assistant.

Riley said he subsequently called UVa coach Al Groh, who had sent one or more staff members to observe Oregon State's system in the offseason, Buker wrote. Groh has been very secretive about such trips in the past, declining to confirm another offseason trip, to Texas Tech, that has been reported by multiple outlets.

Oregon State, which is on the quarter system, is reporting that Lalich will be eligible to play for the Beavers next season despite playing in the Cavaliers' first two games as a sophomore this year and that he will have two more seasons of eligibility.

Recruiting

George Washington running back David Wilson, the highest-rated in-state football player to commit to Virginia Tech, carried 29 times for 331 yards and scored seven touchdowns Sept. 19, as the Eagles rallied from a 21-0 deficit to defeat Matoaca 49-34.

n Bethel High School senior Jontel Evans, considered a Division I-A football recruit before signing with Virginia for basketball, scored six touchdowns Friday night in a 63-14 victory over Menchville. Evans carried 14 times for 207 yards and had three receptions for 80 yards.

n China Crosby, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Manhattan, N.Y., has become the fourth top 40 women's basketball prospect to commit to Virginia for the entering class of 2009. Crosby, rated the No. 14 prospect in the country by ESPN, picked the Cavaliers over Louisville.

Connections

Brandon Barden, who began his college career at Virginia Tech, is listed as a co-starter at tight end for 19th-ranked Vanderbilt. Barden, who caught a touchdown pass in the Commodores' 24-17 upset of South Carolina, signed with Tech as a quarterback.

Barden took early enrollment at Tech in January 2007 and was a resident of West Ambler Johnston Hall, site of the first campus shootings April 16, 2007. His father had cited the discomfort stemming from the shootings as one reason for the transfer.