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Friday, January 19, 2007

Good thing they’re not going to the same school

Chapman not signing with UVa

By Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty's College Notebook Plus is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Fridays.

Find his College Notebook from The Roanoke Times in Thursday's college sports section

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With the commitment of Henrico High School’s Corey Mosley to Virginia, the state’s top uncommitted prospect is Chimaeze “Chima” Okoli, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound defensive tackle from Salem High School in Virginia Beach.

Okoli is not to be confused with Chimso Okoji, a linebacker from Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Md.

When I first learned of UVa’s interest in Okoji, my first impression was to think the Cavaliers had become involved with Okoli.

Not so.

Okoli, rated the No. 20 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times, is the only uncommitted players among nine prospects making official visits to Virginia Tech this weekend.

Okoli told Rivals.com that he favors Penn State but by a small margin over Tech. He is scheduled to go to Penn State this weekend and also has received an offer from Clemson in recent days.

According to Rivals, Penn State has offered Okoli, as has Michigan State.

MICHIGAN STATE and its new head coach, ex-Cincinnati boss Mark Dantonio, have followed Central Florida and Temple as the three schools to offer Okoji (6-2, 220). Iowa and Virginia are among those that have inquired, although the Cavaliers have not offered.

It would be understandable that the Cavaliers would be looking at linebackers because they have lost two linebackers who originally had made commitments to UVa, Almondo Sewell from Hargrave Military Academy and Romale Tucker from Ballou High School in Washington, D.C.

Tucker has enrolled at Milford (Conn.) Prep and Rivals is reporting that he has committed to Syracuse. Hargrave coach Robert Prunty said Friday morning that Virginia has withdrawn its scholarship offer to Sewell, a Trenton, N.J., product who signed with the Cavaliers in 2006 but did not meet NCAA entrance guidelines.

“Almondo’s not going to get in,” Prunty said. “The admissions office is not going to admit him.It was based on his test score. That’s the information I’m getting. He’s going to qualify out of Hargrave, but I guess he didn’t meet the admissions office’s concerns about his test score being low. He hasn’t qualified yet.”

Prunty said Sewell is visiting Temple this weekend. The Owls’ head coach, Al Golden, and defensive coordinator, Mark D’Onofrio, recruited New Jersey for Virginia when Sewell originally committed. Alabama, Maryland and North Carolina also have expressed interest.

Prunty said that two other players who signed with Virginia last year, offensive lineman Billy Cuffee and safety Ras-I Dowling, are “solid for UVa” and will be in Charlottesville this weekend on official visits.

AS LATE AS LAST WEEKEND, Virginia had 26 committed players, according to some reports, but no more than 23 of those players will sign.

In addition to the losses of Sewell and Tucker, the Cavaliers will not sign Fork Union Military Academy nose tackle Asa Chapman.. That was the word Friday from Fork Union Military Academy coach John Shuman.

Chapman, a 2006 UVa signee out of Orange County High School, does not necessarily qualify as a “decommit.”

“The Virginia staff is going to come over in a week or so and sit down with Asa and try to work up a plan as to what he should do,” Shuman said.

Chapman is scheduled to take the SAT next weekend. If Chapman has a big jump, Shuman said, he might try to keep Chapman around for another year in hopes that he can enter Virginia in 2008.

TECH IS INVOLVED with each of the state’s remaining uncommitted Top 25 players, Okoli and No. 23 Maurice Hampton, a two-way lineman from Phoebus High School in Hampton who is projected as an O-lineman by the Hokies.

Hampton will visit Maryland this weekend, take the SAT next weekend and then visit Tech over the weekend of Feb. 2-4. The signing date this year is Feb. 7.

The most heralded uncommitted player still on Tech’s list is Tydreke Powell, a 6-3, 298-pound defensive lineman from Hertford County High School in Ahoskie, N.C.

Powell has been to East Carolina and Clemson, according to Rivals, and has a trip upcoming to North Carolina this weekend. He is scheduled to visit Tech and Penn State on the last two weekends before the signing day.

FORK UNION’S SHUMAN said that Virginia has been eliminated by FUMA offensive lineman Anthony Castonzo, who will be at Boston College this weekend and will go to Stanford unofficially next week.

Castonzo (6-7, 255) needs to go to Stanford unofficially because he already has taken or will take official visits to Kent State, Connecticut, Temple and Vanderbilt. Five is the limit.

Virginia made an offer to Castonzo, but Castonzo’s father said the Cavaliers didn’t express as much interest as some of the other schools when his son returned home for Christmas break.

Shuman said he suggested that Castonzo commit to Virginia as soon as he took an unofficial visit to Charlottesville in December, but the Cavaliers weren’t in position where they could wait on him, particularly with Lamar Milstead ready to commit after decommitting to UNC.

Of the three Fork Union players involved with Virginia, only long snapper Danny Aiken, a former quarterback at Roanoke’s Cave Spring High School, will be signing Feb. 7. Shuman said he doesn’t know if Aiken will return to Fork Union for the spring term, but recommends it.

“Copper stayed around and got stronger,” said Shuman, referring to UVa starting linebacker Jon Copper, a walk-on from Roanoke’s Northside High School.

NEW HALIFAX COUNTY coach Stan Hodgin reports that 6-foot-2 ½, 255-pound Allen Stephens, a junior linebacker, has received scholarship offers from Tech and Maryland.

Stephens had 189 tackles this past season, including 136 unassisted tackles, 27 for loss. He has 4.7-second speed for 40 yards

Hodgin also gives high marks to another junior, 6-1, 185-pound quarterback Rodale Pippen, who passed for 1,996 yards and 20 touchdowns this past season. Pippen, who started at wide receiver as a sophomore, has 4.55-second speed for 40 yards.

“I think we’re a little unique in what we do,” Hodgin said, “so, we’re always going to have an ‘athlete’ at the quarterback position.”

Those numbers would have been reported earlier if they had been obtainable from Comets beat man Tucker McLaughlin, sports editor of the News and Record of South Boston.

Hodgin isn’t nearly as clueless as McLaughlin.

“I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Hodgin said.

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