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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Early returns show Virginia Tech with 17 commitments from in-state football recruits, including 14 from seniors, and the best may be yet to come.

Of the nine Virginians named to SuperPrep’s preseason All-America team, only eighth-ranked Dyrell Roberts, a running back from Smithfield High School, has committed to Tech.

All three of the uncommitted preseason All-Americans from Virginia, offensive tackle Vinston Painter from Maury High School in Norfolk (No. 3), running back Ryan Williams from Stonewall Jackson in Manassas (No. 4) and offensive lineman Jimmy Bennett from West Potomac in Alexandria (No. 8) have the Hokies at or near the top of their lists.

Prospects who have made commitments to out-of-state programs include No. 1 E.J. Manuel (Florida State), No. 3 Mike Glennon (N.C. State) and No. 7 Marcus Dowtin (Georgia). It is unlikely that the Hokies will get No. 2 Deion Walker from Christchurch, who has expressed interest in UVa but probably will land out of state.

Tech is also the favorite for Ocean Lakes quarterback and wide receiver Marcus Davis, who is 10th on SuperPrep’s list, but, at some point, you’d think the Hokies might run out of scholarships.

The Division I-A scholarship limit is 25 and Tech is at 22, although insiders say the Hokies may take 26 recruits. That stems from the likelihood that committed Goochland High School running back D.J. Coles may require a postgraduate season.

The same could be said for an uncommitted Hokies target, 6-7, 335-pound Lynchburg Christian offensive lineman Bobby Massie. I could see Tech signing 26 players if the 26th is Coles and the 27th is Massie.

Wide receiver Ben Barber from Edison High School in Alexandria is the brother of former Tech safety Willie Pile and is said to favor the Hokies, too, but does Tech run the table and get Painter, Williams, Bennett, Davis, Massie and Barber? I can’t see where there’s room for all of them.

Virginia, on the other hand, might be on the verge of its most unproductive in-state recruiting year ever. The Cavaliers’ lone in-state commitment to date is from Norview defensive lineman Klinton “Buddy” Ruff, who did have an offer from Virginia Tech. To their credit, the Hokies don’t deny that they liked Ruff, but it’s not like he had their undivided attention.

Where Virginia could make up some ground at this point is with players who might emerge during their senior years. An example would be John Bivens, a former baseball standout at Prince George who ended up signing with the Cavaliers in 2006. Bivens wasn’t on any football recruiting lists in the summer of 2005, but there are cases like his every year.

Chima Okoli, a defensive lineman from Salem High School in Virginia Beach, didn’t have anything going until the end of the regular season in 2006 but ended up signing with Penn State over Virginia Tech.

The talk at Hollywood's, site of Friday’s SEC Roundtable, turned to Virginia Tech’s offensive line. How could there be so much talent elsewhere on the Hokies’ team and the offensive line be so lackluster?

To me, it speaks to the growing trend in football recruiting toward earlier and earlier commitments. Nobody gets recruited off of senior-year performance any more. The first time that a player may be offered a scholarship in writing is Sept. 1 of his junior year and, if a team doesn’t come through with an offer on that day, it could be left behind.

From all reports, Stone Bridge defensive lineman David Wang, who committed to Tech last weekend, is the real deal. But, honestly, how can anybody be sure when he has barely played one game in his junior year?

A COACH WITH AN interest in the basketball operations job at Virginia said he was told that the opening has been filled, although there has not been an announcement.

From all indications, the Cavaliers probably will hire 35-year-old Rick Brunson, a “player development coach” since January with the Denver Nuggets. Brunson, a Temple University graduate, played for nine teams in parts of 10 NBA seasons.

Brunson once was mentioned as a possibility for the job that came open when assistant coach Rob Lanier left after two seasons to join the staff at Florida.  Head coach Dave Leitao announced this week that Drew Diener had been promoted to assistant coach after spending the past two seasons in operations.

The Cavaliers this weekend will entertain John Brandenburg, a 6-foot-10 center from St. Louis who is expected to announce his college choice in the next week. Brandenburg already has visited Stanford, his other finalist.

Also on hand for the Duke-Virginia football game will be Deshawn Painter, a 6-9 junior from Booker T. Washington in Norfolk. Painter is considered the state’s top rising junior.

Sylven Landesberg, a 6-6 wing player from Flushing, N.Y., was in Charlottesville last weekend and the Cavaliers plan to bring four other seniors to campus this fall for official visits.

They include 6-4 Elliott Williams from Colliersville, Tenn., and 6-7 Lance Goulbourne from the Hun School in Princeton, N.J., who will be in Charlottesville over the weekend of Sept. 22.

Expected for visits later in the fall are 6-10 Frank Ben-Eze from Bishop O’Connell in Arlington and 7-foot Assane Sene from Senegal by way of South Kent (Conn.) School. Connecticut will be hard to beat for Sene, who attended Huskies’ coach Jim Calhoun’s elite camp.

Ben-Eze is from Nigeria, home to current Cavaliers Tunji Soroye and Solomon Tat.