Doug Doughty

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In a recent piece on the process of “grayshirting,” I noted that I was not aware of a situation in which a Virginia student-athlete had graduated from high school in December.

Media gadfly Jeff White, for one, took me to task for not making the distinction between early enrollment and grayshirting, which is more accurately described as delayed enrollment.

Now comes evidence that my first supposition may have been in error.

While trying to determine which of Virginia Tech’s 2007 signees would be enrolling in January, I learned Friday that Edison High School senior Ben Barber will be joining the Hokies in January.

January enrollees whom Tech has the option of counting against its 2007 or 2008 scholarship quotas are Barber, defensive tackle Courtney Prince from Mitchellville, Md., and Gwynn Park High School, and linebacker Alonzo Tweedy from Hermitage High School.

Prince and Tweedy originally signed with the Hokies last February and presumably could have enrolled this summer but elected to delay their enrollment.

Of the 23 players who signed with Tech in February, five have not yet enrolled in school – Prince, Tweedy, Patrick Henry-Ashland running back D.J. Thomas, Osbourn Park linebacker Quillie Odom and Sumter, S.C., all-purpose threat Kendrick Pressley.

Odom and Pressley spent the fall semester at Hargrave Military Academy but have not yet met NCAA qualifying guidelines and will require at least one more semester at Hargrave.

Thomas, injured last summer in the Virginia High School Coaches’ Association All-Star Game, was not a qualifier out of high school and did not attend school this fall while rehabbing his injury.

Thomas has expressed the intention of improving his test scores to a point where he can enroll at Tech next fall, but the qualifying standards have been tweaked since he was in high school and some have suggested he might be better-served by going to junior college.

MIKE CAMPBELL, the Rockbridge County product who serves as principal at Centreville High School in Fairfax County, says that Barber was able to graduate in December because Edison has a 4-by-4 curriculum.

“You only take four courses each semester,” Campbell said. “Those kids who took Algebra and History in the first semester are going to finish those and now they’re going to move on to Government and Algebra 2 in the second semester.”

At Centreville, on the other hand, if a student signs up for Algebra 1, he or she takes that class for two semesters. Classes are shorter and students take as many as six or seven in the same semester.

“Those are year-long courses,” Campbell said. “If a kid from Centreville wanted to go to Virginia Tech at mid-year, it would be really difficult right now.”

Campbell said the 4-by-4 setup is not widespread, “but it’s getting more and more attention,” he said. “In a year, you can get eight courses in, instead of seven courses. I like it because it really concentrates you. I love the concept but it does create some logistical problems along the line.”

Edison and Centreville both belong to the Fairfax County School System, which has been pushing dual enrollment.

“If you can go to Virginia Tech and take a course, you also can get credit at the high school,” he said. “I’m not sure, but Ben Barber might be taking these courses at Tech and also getting high-school credit.”

(Campbell, previously the principal at Westfield High School, the Group AAA Division 6 champion this year, says to look out for Centreville. Centreville has two promising juniors in 6-6, 260-pound offensive tackle Luke Bowanko and 6-3, 230-pound linebacker Mike Upham).

THE WAY RECRUITING is nowadays, Virginia is likely to feel the effects of a nine-win season more with the 2009 class than it is this year, but this is also a time of year when coaching situations change.

It wasn’t surprising to hear that linebacker Donovan Miles from Brooke Point High School in Stafford might be reopening his recruiting and Jamie Oakes of rivals.com reports that linebacker Christian Wilson from McKees Rock, Pa., has advised the Cavaliers of his interest.

Miles committed to West Virginia before the season.

Wilson had committed to Michigan as an H-back, but the arrival of new coach Rich Rodriguez and his spread offense from West Virginia casts some doubt on the role of the H-back in the Wolverines’ new scheme.

The Rodriguez situation should impact the recruiting situations at several schools because he uses a scheme that requires uncommon personnel sets. A player recruited by West Virginia for Rodriguez’s scheme might not be as good a fit for the new coach, and the same for players previously recruited by Michigan.