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

TimesCast Sports

See Doug and Randy talk sports every week with the Sports edition of the TimesCast

• Hokies hit the Diamond, and it's Scott Robertson time

Top 100 recruits for 2008

• Top 25
• Top 26 - 100

Recent columns

• Pulaski's Peak worth recruiters' look
• Ex-Rockbridge coach turns Dinwiddie into recruiting destination
• Of Pete Rose and reader feedback
• GW's Wilson a lock for Tech? Not at this point

• Column archive
• Top 50 Virginia high school football prospects

In an effort to inform Notebook Plus readers while trying to keep a grip on things myself, I went looking for a late-summer list of the state’s top football prospects in an effort to come up with a new list of the state’s top uncommitted seniors.

If you put together a list based solely on the previous list, the state’s top 10 uncommitted prospects would be as follows:

1) Deion Walker, 6-3, 185 WR, Christchurch
2) Vinston Painter, 6-5, 315 OL, Norfolk Maury
3) Ryan Williams, 5-10, 197 RB, Manassas Stonewall Jackson;
4) Marcus Davis, 6-4, 226 ATH, Virginia Beach Ocean Lakes;
5) Kevin Whaley, 5-9, 170 RB, Virginia Beach Salem.
6) Morgan Carter, 6-3, 205, ATH, Woodbridge Hylton;
7) Tommy Reamon Jr., 6-1, 195 QB, Gloucester;
8) Casey Turner, 6-4, 210 QB, Chesapeake Western Branch;
9) Darryl Hamilton, 5-8, 170 DB, Centreville Clifton;
10) Reid Evans, 5-10, DB-WR, Phoebus Hampton

If I were to make any changes, the first thing I would do is find room on that list for a couple of wide receivers, Randall Dunn (6-3, 215) from North Lakes and A.J. Price (6-4, 195) from Reston South Lakes.

Price has offers from Michigan, Penn State, Duke, Virginia and North Carolina. Dunn has offers from Virginia Tech, Virginia and Connecticut. Dunn and the above-mentioned Painter are cousins.

It’s going to be interesting where the Hokies go from here because they already have 25 commitments, although as many as three could count toward Tech’s 2007 25-scholarship quota and another three might delay their enrollment until 2009.

Looking at the in-state players only, Tech has made offers to Painter, Williams, Davis, Whaley and Dunn. The Hokes are talking to Walker, as are the Cavaliers, but you have to wonder if Walker is just trying to humor the in-state schools.

Williams plays for ex-Tech defensive back Loren Johnson and the Hokies have to be near the top of his list. The same goes for Painter, who had Miami on a par with the Hokies, but why would anybody want to go to Miami. The program is down and danger seems to lurk behind every corner.

If Tech gets Williams, that eliminates them with Whaley, whose interest in Tech was not mentioned in a rivals.com update earlier this week. The Hokies are in good shape for Ocean Lakes teammates Davis and Dunn, but can Tech afford to take both of them? With Williams and Painter, that would be 29.

Virginia has numbers issues of its own, specifically pertaining to the 85-scholarship limit for players in the program. The magic number for the Cavaliers, who have taken 14 commitments to date, is 18-19.

Of the top uncommitted players off the late-summer list, UVa supposedly has offers out to Whaley and Hamilton, younger brother of ex-Cavalier standout Marcus Hamilton, but they do not appear prominently in most discussions. UVa likes Evans and the feeling is mutual, but no offer has been made.

Price would be a good one for the Cavaliers to take because he’s a talented in-state prospect with whom the Hokies simply can’t afford to get involved with at this point. Jamie Oakes at rivals.com seems to think that Price favors the Cavaliers, but Michigan and Penn State are formidable rivals.

TO READ the rivals.com piece on Whaley this week, one wonders how far he might have slipped, but knowledgeable Tidewater observer Bryan Black says that Whaley has an offer from Penn State and will be a gem for anybody who signs him.

Black also provides the following stats on some of the most prominent players from his area:

This season, Great Bridge’s uncommitted Turner completed 197 of 341 passes for 2,840 yards and 35 touchdowns.

Whaley had 214 carries for 1,661 yards and 22 rushing touchdowns (25 overall).

Davis, who played quarterback at Ocean Lakes but is being recruited as an athlete, completed 104 of 223 passes for 1,837 yards and 20 touchdowns. Davis also rushed for 858 yards and 12 TDs.

Davis’ top receiver, Dunn, had 37 receptions for 845 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Smithfield running back Dyrell Roberts, projected as a wide receiver by Virginia Tech, carried 268 times for 2,235 yards and 33 rushing touchdowns (43 touchdowns overall).

Bayside quarterback and Florida State recruit E.J. Manuel completed 126 of 213 passes for 1,896 yards and 19 touchdowns.

Oscar Smith wide receiver and Maryland recruit Kerry Boykins had 34 receptions for 507 yards and nine touchdowns.

Norview defensive lineman Klinton Ruff, the only in-state player to commit to Virginia, had nine sacks.

CLOSER TO HOME, Lord Botetourt football coach Tater Benson thinks he could have as many three Division I recruits in his junior class, headed by Rodney Cooper, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound tight end who already has been to Tennessee at the Vols’ invitation.

Benson believes that 6-4, 270-pound offensive tackle Patrick McNichols can play at the Division I-AA level, if not higher, and that junior place-kicker Troy McNeil has the right stuff. McNeil (5-10, 170) finished third out of 52 kickers last year at an elite kicking combine in Phoenix.

Lord Botetourt’s best senior is Casey Weddle, a 5-10, 170-pound defensive back whose football ability would rank him among the state’s top 100 seniors even if he didn’t have the kind of grades that would endear coaches to their admissions departments.