Doug Doughty

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

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One of the mysteries of the recently completed football recruiting campaign is how Virginia Tech could land a 7,000-yard career rusher and Parade All-American who was named Mr. Football in Indiana.

The Hoosier state does not qualify as prime Hokie recruiting.

And, if Darren Evans had been able to get several of his teammates to buy into his original plan, he never would have left the state.

In the letter-of-intent issue of SuperPrep magazine, Evans admitted that he tried to mobilize several of his teammates after their junior year at Warren Central in Indianapolis and get them to commit to Indiana University.

"I was kind of the leader to do it, but no one started following me," said Evans, who was the EA Sports National Player of the Year for 2006. "They don't want to admit it, but that's the truth. I wanted to go there first."

Remarkably, three of Evans' Warren Central teammates committed to Indiana but only after Evans already had pledged to Virginia Tech.

There was a story behind that, too. The No. 1 prospect in Indiana was Warren Central safety Jerimy Finch, who took an unofficial visit to Tech during the summer and persuaded Evans to come with him.

Nothing became of Finch's recruitment, but Evans ran the 40 under the eye of Tech's coaches, who had not offered him a scholarship until that point.

"I don't think the visit was mainly for me; the visit was mainly for Jerimy," Evans told SuprerPrep. "I ran a 40 time that was a deciding factor on if they were going to offer me. I felt that I could come in and get some playing time."

          SUPERPREP'S "Recruits on Record" section also had an interesting look at quarterback Mike Paulus' decision to honor his commitment to North Carolina after the firing of coach John Bunting and his staff.

"I was really close with all the coaches and when they got fired, I decided to wait and see what happened before I made any decisions," said Paulus, whose older brother, Greg, is the point guard for Duke's basketball team. "Then, when coach [Buth] Davis got hired, I felt like I hit the jackpot.

"I talked to him on [the] Sunday night right after his press conference. I really didn't think I'd hear from him until Monday or Tuesday. I was honored when he told me he was the first guy he called."

LONGTIME SUPERPREP publisher Allen Wallace had Tech's recruiting year ranked 26th  in his "Big 50" and Virginia was 32nd. However, I'm not sure, when there are fewer than 125 teams in Division I-A, that a 49th- or 50th-rated recruiting class can be classified as "big."

Virginia's recruiting class was an improvement on its No. 40 ranking in 2006, but UVa's four classes before that had all been ranked in Wallace's top 18.

Tech's football recruiting classes have been ranked as high as eighth (in 2001), but this was the eighth time in 10 years that the Hokies have been ranked between 19th and 31st.

Wallace did not have Virginia Tech's incoming offensive-line among his elite group of 12, which might have been an oversight on his part. It's hard to remember a time when Tech has recruited as many top offensive linemen in one class.

REVIEWING AL GROH'S quotes from the first 10 days of spring camp, it would seem that an injury to wide receiver Kevin Ogletree might be cause to revisit the status of Emmanuel Byers.

Byers was eligible for a fifth season of eligibility in 2007, but Groh said he generally will advise a player not to return if he is going to graduate and will not have a "substantial" on-field role.

At this point, with Ogletree expected to miss the 2007 season, Byers would have more career receptions than anybody UVa could put on the field. In fact, he had more receptions (10) in 2007 than any other Virginia wide receiver with remaining eligibility, not counting Ogletree.

However, when asked if the Ogletree injury had caused him to revise his thinking, Groh responded, "It has not." Presumably, there's more to the Byers situation than meets the eye."

IN A RECENT Notebook Plus that drew criticism from at least one reader for its lack of sizzle, it was suggested that Virginia Tech could be picked as low as eighth in the ACC in men's basketball next season.

"Does that mean I'm a genius if we finish better than eighth?" Hokies' coach Seth Greenberg asked earlier this week.

Maybe so. In its most recent edition, the ACC Sports Journal had Tech ranked 10th in its early look at the 2007-2008 race. Virginia was fifth.