Doug Doughty

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Until he stopped imbibing altogether, Virginia Tech football assistant Jim Cavanaugh set aside one day a year when he would allow himself a mixed drink.

At the completion of recruiting, the Hokies’ coaches would have a get-together on national signing day.

“If it was a good recruiting year, I would have one margarita,” Cavanaugh said. “If we had a great year, I sometimes would have two.”

Somehow, the tradition has fallen by the wayside, or maybe the other coaches just don’t invite him, “which could be,” Cavanaugh said, “but I don’t think so.”

But, just in case anybody was wondering, Cavanaugh says this was a two-margarita class.

Some would say that Tech’s 31-member class, including 14 players off The Roanoke Times Top 25, might be their best class ever.

“I don’t like to say that,” said Cavanaugh, who would prefer to rate classes after they’ve been on campus for a while. “The redshirt senior class we just had, with [Xavier] Adibi, [Vince] Hall and Chris Ellis, they won 42 games. That was a pretty darn good class.”

The point could be made that Tech has never done better in the state.

“I would say that,” Cavanaugh said.

As for the annual recruiting get-together, director of football operations John Ballein had a simple explanation for its elimination.

“Once Cav got that first drink in him,” Ballein said, “the potential was too great that things might get out of hand.”

HAVING BEEN OUT of town since Wednesday, I was eager to get back to the Internet and see what I had missed. Here are some of the items that have caused me to update my various lists:

VMI signed Luke Holloran, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound wide receiver from Broadway High School who was rated the No. 80 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times.

Gloucester quarterback Tommy Reamon was the state’s highest-rated uncommitted player at No. 41 before he committed to Old Dominion. The Monarchs, restarting football after a long break, signed four top 50 players.

The 53rd-ranked player on The Roanoke Times list, all-state offensive lineman Joey Christine from Sherando High School in Stephens City, signed with Norfolk State.

No. 68 Harry Kehs, a 6-3, 239-pound tight end from James Madison is Vienna, is headed to Air Force.

Monticello High School in Charlottesville is sending all-state running back Takeem Hedgmann to Norfolk State and all-state offensive lineman Jake Miles to Wofford. They were No. 72 and 82, respectively, among the state’s top prospects.

Please see the DataSphere for an updated list.

JIMMY PRINCE, head coach at Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, said that Virginia Tech football recruit Marcus Davis would not have played quarterback this year if projected signalcaller Dan Pitts had not torn up a knee in the first preseason scrimmage.

“We played 52 passing-league games this year and Marcus didn’t quarterback one game,” Prince said. “He didn’t want to quarterback. He was enormously successful at wide receiver. We were 50-2. We had a big-time quarterback already.

Pitts “could throw the ball over the place,” Prince said. “I would hope that some school would come to its senses and, instead of taking a 6-1 quarterback, here’s a 6-5, 220-pound kid who’s already back in the starting six for our basketball team. It looks like he’ll be going to prep school.”

Prince’s comment led one to wonder if he felt Virginia, which signed 6-1 Riko Smalls from Plano, Texas, should have pursued Pitts.

“I can’t answer that,” Prince said. “I think Dan will be a great, great college quarterback. He has a gun for an arm. He ran a 4.6 [for 40 yards]. He’s not by any means slow. He can run the ball but still throw out of the pocket. He can throw the ball 60 yards with as sweet a spiral as I’ve coached. He would have been masterful.”

AT A NEWS CONFERENCE Wednesday to discuss Virginia’s football recruiting class, coach Al Groh scotched the rumors that New England Patriots defensive line coach Pepper Johnson might be a target in UVa’s search for a new defensive coordinator.

Among other things, the pay scale for an NFL position coach is higher than a Division I-A coordinator can command. Jamie Oates, who covers UVa football for rivals.com speculates that there is a good chance that Groh might not name a coordinator and take over those duties himself.

Fork Union coach John Shuman says one of the most impressive young recruiters with whom he has dealt is JMU offensive line coach Chris Malone, a 1996 Virginia Tech graduate. Malone went to Brunswick Academy in Lawrenceville, followed that with a postgraduate year at Fork Union, and he also has coached at VMI and Massachusetts.