The start of the college football season is usually accompanied by a lull in recruiting, which is a good thing for Virginia.

The Cavaliers couldn’t possibly continue at the breakneck pace they were keeping.

It’s noteworthy enough that Virginia has more commitments, 22, than any other Division I-A program. On top of that, UVa has been sitting at 22 since July 26.

The Cavaliers’ recruiting “strategy” has been a topic for debate among rival coaches and the media, but head coach Al Groh is quick to provide some clarification.

“If our intent had been to have a lot of commitments by July 1, then that would be one circumstance,” Groh said, “but we didn’t set out to get a lot of commitments by a certain date.

“We set out to get particular players. That it’s worked out with those players on this time frame has brought about the circumstance that we’re in. These were targeted players from the outset.”

Groh’s mandate to his staff was to wrap up its junior evaluations by the end of April and make offers before the annual May period when college coaches can go into high schools.

“Only a few players have more than one or two offers at that point,” Groh said, “but, if you wait till June 1, the same player might have nine offers and then it becomes a real rodeo.”

At one time early in the summer, Virginia had more commitments than the other 10 ACC schools combined.

“I hope Virginia doesn’t fall into the Penn State trap,” said Allen Wallace, national recruiting editor for TheInsiders.Com. “It’s OK if they’ve got the right guys. If their evaluations are really strong and correct, then they’re in the catbird seat.”

Wallace can’t remember a team with more commitments before the season than Virginia’s 22, “but Penn State was up around the high teens,” he said. “You also noticed, at the end of Penn State’s recruiting, you didn’t really see [the Nittany Lions] battling for any game-breaker types.

“Clearly, when you look at Penn State now, you see a lack of game-breaking athletes [and] a lack of speed. I don’t say that I anticipate that for the University of Virginia, but there’s no question that some of the best athletes just aren’t going to commit early.”

At least judging by SuperPrep, a magazine that Wallace has edited for 20 years, Virginia has recruited mostly high-level prospects. The Cavaliers have commitments from six preseason SuperPrep All-Americans, two of whom were rated among Wallace’s preseason national Top 50, Plainfield, N.J., offensive lineman Eugene Monroe and Jersey City, N.J., cornerback Mike Brown.

Monroe is rated the No. 1 offensive lineman in the country by SuperPrep.

“I’ve had college coaches tell me that he could go into an NFL camp and legitimately hold his own,” Wallace said.

West Virginia assistant Bill Stewart, once the head coach at VMI, recruits Virginia for the Mountaineers and thinks he has a good feel for the 11 in-state players who have committed to the Cavaliers.

“Good golly, Miss Molly, they’re tearing it up,” said Stewart, interviewed at a point when UVa had 17 commitments. “I don’t care who you talk to, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, UCLA, when you’ve got 17 commitments, it sounds like things are going pretty good to me.”

There is one drawback when you’ve got 22 commitments is August. It leaves a school with only three slots under the NCAA’s 25-scholarship NCAA cap.

West Virginia doesn’t have as many early commitments as Virginia, but the Mountaineers did take a commitment from North Babylon, N.Y., running back Jason Gwaltney, the top-rated running back in the Northeast.

“If it’s a good match or a good marriage, you go with it,” Stewart said. “If these guys are, quote, no brainers, I don’t know how you could turn a good one -- or a great one -- down.

“These early commitments are a new trend and there’s another new trend, the one-day camps that a lot of us have. Sometimes, you have to offer to get them here. And, if you offer, then you better be able to take their commitment.

“The last thing you want to do is offer a kid at, say, Northside, and then have to go back to Roanoke and say, ‘Coach [Jim] Hickam, we don’t really want to take him just yet.’ ”

Some schools have gotten around the numbers crunch by taking players at mid-year, a practice that has come to be known as gray-shirting. Derrick Williams, a Greenbelt, Md., quarterback and wide receiver whom SuperPrep rates the No. 1 prospect in the country, says he wants to graduate from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in December and enroll in college for the second semester.

If that takes place, the college of Williams’ choice would have the option of counting his scholarship toward either its 2004 or its 2005 limit.

Virginia Tech and Virginia are among the 13 schools on Williams’ most recent list and the Cavaliers would benefit, numbers wise, from having him enroll at midyear. Since 1995, however, the only recruit to enter Virginia at midyear was current linebacker Ahmad Brooks in 2003.

“The principal reason for that was [admissions officials] were comfortable with Ahmad’s transcript out of high school,” said Groh, referring to the journey that took Brooks, a 2002 Hylton High School graduate, to Hargrave Military Academy. “Right now, I don’t think it’s the philosophy of the university to do it.”

Groh’s pitch to would-be January enrollees, including 2004 signees Olu Hall and Brandon Albert at Hargrave, is that the Cavaliers have started 14 freshmen over the past two seasons, “most of them true freshmen,” he added, “so, obviously, we don’t think you need that other semester to get them ready.”

Recent recruiting classes have left Virginia depth-shy at wide receiver and the Cavaliers’ involvement with at least six uncommitted preseason SuperPrep All-America running backs would suggest a priority in that area. To take even two would come close to putting the Cavaliers out of business for the year.

“There is a stop point,” Groh said. “There could be a circumstance where a player has been targeted and offered amd there might not be enough room on the bus, but I’m very comfortable with where we sit right now.”