Doug Doughty

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Editor's note: Doug Doughty is on vacation this weekend. His Notebook Plus will return Dec. 21.

Perhaps you’ve heard about the flap that resulted from Mac McDonald’s roundup show following the Virginia Tech-Virginia football game.

The way it’s been explained to me, McDonald was asked about Tech’s recent domination of the schools’ football series and said he did not feel comfortable discussing that subject on the air but invited the caller to e-mail him.

McDonald, the Cavaliers’ radio voice, said Friday that he received approximately 100 e-mails and that he answered 30-some phone calls. He said it would not be incorrect to say he attributed at least part of Tech’s superiority to the practice of grayshirting.

The term “grayshirting” refers to the ability to have recruits enroll at mid-year. The last Virginia football recruit to enroll at mid-year was Ahmad Brooks in January 2003. However, I don’t know if there’s a school policy against it.

UVa would be unlikely to admit a marginal student-athlete at mid-year, but women’s golfer Jennie Arsenault graduated from high school in Florida in December 2005 and played for the Cavaliers that spring. Tennis player Houston Barrick enrolled in January last year.

While I don't think grayshirting is a big factor in the Tech-UVa disparity, don't get me wrong. It does put the Cavaliers at a disadvantage. Right now, the Cavaliers are fighting to keep a prime Washington, D.C., prospect, defensive end Ugochukwu Uzodinma from Dunbar, who is getting the rush from Illinois.

Uzodinma already has committed to Virginia, but Illinois has raised the possibility of him enrolling in January. Presumably, he is on an academic pace that would allow them to graduate from high school in December.

If Tech were recruiting Uzodinma, grayshirting might be an issue for the Hokies, too, but they're not. Of the 26 players who have committed to Tech for 2008, 20 are from Virginia. Players don't graduate from Virginia high schools in December. Maybe they can, but they don't. In 30 years of covering football recruiting in this state, I can’t remember one.

Last year, there were reports that Tyrod Taylor was going to graduate from Hampton High School in December and enroll at Virginia Tech in time to participate in spring practice. That didn’t happen. I also heard rumors about Virginia recruit Peter Lalich leaving West Springfield after the first semester and spending the second semester at Western Albemarle, so he could observe UVa’s spring football practice. Of course, that didn’t happen either.

THE NO. 1 factor in Virginia Tech’s football superiority is its ability to land the top prospects in the state of Virginia. Virginia coach Al Groh should be ashamed that, as of Dec. 7, only one of 14 UVa commitments is from a state player.

Grayshirting can be done in one of two ways. Players can graduate from high school in December and enroll in college in January. Or they can graduate from high school in the spring, sit out the first semester of college and enroll in January. That allows them to go through one spring practice before their eligibility clock starts.

That gives Tech a big advantage when it comes to managing its numbers (no more than 25 scholarships in one year; no more than 85 scholarship players in the program). When 2007 signee Alonzo Tweedy enrolls next month, he can count toward the 2007 or 2008 limit. Virginia can’t juggle its numbers that way.

But, when you look at the great players to come through the Tech program, how many of them were grayshirted? Offensive lineman Jake Grove comes to mind. But, look at the best players on this year’s Tech team.

There are seven players who made first-team All-ACC either this year or last year: offensive tackle Duane Brown, defensive end Chris Ellis, linebacker Vince Hall, linebacker Xavier Adibi, cornerback Brandon Flowers, cornerback Macho Harris and running back Branden Ore.

All of them came directly to Tech out of high school. None were grayshirted. Neither were two other Cavalier-killers, quarterback Sean Glennon and wide receiver-return specialist Eddie Royal. Virginia needs to be careful about questioning Tech’s recruiting standards when many of the Hokies’ top players also considered the Cavaliers.

(My decision to pick Tech over UVa last month was based partly on my sense that Groh – son Mike also was involved in this – will be haunted forever by his decision to take a commitment from Californian Scott Deke before making an offer to the top in-state QB, Glennon).

IF PEOPLE at UVa wants to make an issue of Tech’s recruiting, I invite them to come up with some numbers because, I’ll agree, it’s hard to believe a program can take 25 or more commitments every year, redshirt 20 or so, and still be at 85.

At some point, I may crunch the numbers, although I’m not sure my Tech sources would appreciate a UVa beat reporter undertaking such a venture. It would like I were a plant. I also believe that Tech head coach Frank Beamer and advisor John Ballein are on top of the situation. They’ve been doing this too long.

My guess is that a small but not insignificant percentage of the Tech recruits ends up never signing. Such is the case with one of the players in this year’s Tech class, Suwanee, Ga., defensive back Cameron Demps. The Hokies have backed off Demps as the result of a behavioral matter this fall.

That dropped them to 26, which includes former Patrick Henry-Ashland running back D.J. Thomas, who assured rivals.com of his dedication to becoming eligible to enroll at Tech in the fall. Thomas underwent surgery and is sitting out the fall semester after injuring a knee in the Virginia High School Coaches’ Association All-Star Game.

Thomas had planned to sit out the 2007 season as a grayshirt but changes in the NCAA eligibility guidelines would have made it difficult for him to enroll in January and those requirements are not going to change before next season. Junior college might be his best bet ever to get to Tech.

One of the players who is a senior in high school this year, Ben Barber from Edison High School in Alexandria, is projected as a January 2009 enrollee. In all likelihood, Virginia could not have offered such an arrangement, but the Cavaliers were willing to offer 2008 admission. Most players would prefer the earlier enrollment, but it was worth the wait for Barber to follow his half-brother, Willie Pyle, to Blacksburg.

To be sure, Tech already had gotten the upper hand over Virginia by the end of predecessor George Welsh’s tenure, but Groh has alienated coaches at such visible state programs as Hampton, Phoebus, Amherst and even Fork Union, the military boarding school and potential feeder program 35 miles from its campus. (Amherst is 45 miles down the road, by the way).

The Cavaliers declined to offer Fork Union coach John Shuman’s son, Ryan, a center who is at least as accomplished as the Cavaliers’ center, Floridian Jordy Lipsey. To his credit, John Shuman has continued to try and cultivate the Cavaliers and drove to Charlottesville recently to deliver film of 16-year-old offensive lineman Austin Pasztor, a 6-6, 310-pound Canadian.

Pasztor may be a transplant, but that’s a start.