Friday, February 19, 2010
Future in Blacksburg cloudy for Tech signee
O-lineman ends up at Virginia in the end
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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Followers of Virginia Tech’s football recruiting may have noticed that second-semester enrollees included one of the two 2009 signees who spent the fall at Hargrave Military Academy but not the other.
When Hargrave offensive lineman and 2009 Tech signee DeAntre Rhodes did not enroll in January, it was natural to assume that there was some academic work he needed to complete and that he would enroll in the summer.
After all, Rhodes was listed among Tech’s 2010 signees in a news release distributed Feb. 3, the national letter-of-intent day.
The Hokies had high hopes for Rhodes, rated the No. 8 prospect in Virginia for the class of 2009, but it looks increasingly unlikely that he will play for the Hokies.
Rhodes reportedly was at Louisville this week after receiving a release from his letter-of-intent by the Hokies.
Tech made the decision after learning that Rhodes was not enrolled at Hargrave for the second semester.
There seems to be some question as to whether Rhodes has met NCAA guidelines for freshman eligibility and whether Louisville can accept partial-qualifiers.
However, all literature indicates that the Big East no longer accepts partial-qualifiers and the Cardinals belong to the Big East.
Presumably, Tech would have liked for Rhodes to put in some additional classroom time, but newly named Hargrave coach Troy Davis said that Rhodes lacks only the qualifying score in the SAT.
“I guess you could say he’s in ‘limbo,’ “ Davis said. “All he can do is keep taking the test till he makes it. He’s not there yet, but he’s close.”
Davis said that he has noticed some schools make a habit of checking the list of February signees against lists of commitments late in the recruiting period. When a committed player does not show up as signed, some schools view that as open season.
LOUISVILLE ALSO HAS taken a recent men’s basketball commitment from 6-foot-5 Justin Coleman, who spent time at two Virginia high schools before surfacing this season at Huntington (W.Va.) Prep.
Coleman’s skills first came to light at Louisa County, a Group AA program approximately 35 miles east of Charlottesville. He subsequently transferred to Henrico High School in Richmond but was not expected to be a qualifier out of high school, hence an absence of recruiting interest from ACC schools.
Coleman told the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., that he also had offers from South Florida, Kentucky, Providence and Arkansas. According to the story, Coleman also told the paper that he is “really close” to qualifying.
WHEN VIRGINIA’S FOOTBALL staff held a big-man camp during the summer, the word from CavsCorner.com and other recruiting sites was that 6-6, 260-pound Nick Koutris from Oakton High School had stood out from the pack.
Oakton coach Joe Thompson spoke favorably of Koutris and another Oakton offensive lineman, Sam Strauss, but that was the last I’d heard of either of them until I called Thompson on Friday.
Thompson revealed that Koutris, rated the No. 73 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times, recently decided to accept an invitation to play for UVa as a preferred walk-on.
“He had some offers from some I-AA schools, some academic I-AA schools,” Thompson said. “UVa came in kind of late in the game. At 6-6, I think he has a chance. I think he can put on a lot of weight.
“He’s got good feet. He’s one of those guys, he’ll stick his nose in there. He was a two-year starter for us. He had a great game against Oscar Smith in the ’08 playoffs; he’s got some good tape.”
THOMPSON NOTED THAT Strauss is looking at a similar walk-on arrangement with either Maryland or JMU and also passed along some thoughts on former Oakton running back Keith Payne, attempting to make a comeback at UVa as a fifth-year senior.
Payne left the Cavaliers’ team this past fall after being told by then-head coach Al Groh that he had slipped down the depth chart.
“I talked to him on the day of the Super Bowl and he seems committed to having a great year,” Thompson said. “I think Keith really likes coach [Mike] London. I don’t know what his relationship was with coach Groh.”
Groh and Payne probably won’t exchange Christmas cards “but I don’t get a sense that they were at each other’s throat,” Thompson said. “I think there’s been a lot of drama the past couple of years over Keith and playing time and whatnot.
“I don’t know whether Keith brought that on himself or whether it was something that happened in the media, but I don’t think that relationship was as contentious as might be perceived. I do think that he and coach London are off on the right foot.”
