Friday, March 05, 2010
All-Tidewater players head Tech walk-on list
Timing right for George Wythe’s Lester and UVa
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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Sometimes I have to check myself and wonder how much the respective college fanbases care about invited (or uninvited) walk-ons.
But, then, the name Cody Grimm comes to mind. Grimm, the leading vote-getter among linebackers on last fall’s All-ACC football team, went to Virginia Tech as an invited walk-on.
That’s not to say that every invited walk-on has a chance to be the next Cody Grimm, but it’s clear that recruiting for the Class of 2010 did not end Feb. 3.
In the print edition of The Roanoke Times this week, it was reported that Virginia had received commitments from walk-on candidates Drew Lester, a first-team All-Timesland offensive lineman from George Wythe High School in Wytheville, and Colby Rhodes, a second-team All-Timesland defensive back from Jefferson Forest outside Lynchburg.
They will join Nick Koutris, a 6-foot-6, 260-pound offensive lineman from Oakton who was rated the No. 74 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times.
Earlier, it had reported that quarterback Derek “D.J.” Dinardo from Cox High School in Virginia Beach had committed to Virginia Tech as an invited walk-on.
Dinardo, named first-team All-Tidewater by The Virginian Pilot as an athlete, was selected Beach District offensive player of the year and made first-team all-district at quarterback and second-team all-district at defensive back.
Dinardo was rated the No. 91 prospect in the state by The Roanoke Times and the Hokies also got the No. 100 prospect on that list, 5-11, 175-pound Willie Byrn from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach.
Byrn made second-team All-Tidewater in the same spot, “athlete,” as Dinardo. Byrn made first-team All-Beach District as a punt returner and drew raves from First Colonial coach Bill McTyre when I called him to inquire about another player, Nick Dew, after Dew committed to the Hokies in September.
ANOTHER DECORATED player who will be coming to Blacksburg as a walk-on is 6-2, 240-pound Bradley Tallman from Tennessee High in Bristol. Tallman was named to the All-Bristol Herald Courier first team as a defensive end.
Tallman, named Big Eight Conference Player of the Year, had 12 tackles for loss and 6 ½ sacks as a senior.
The Hokies also have taken a commitment from 5-11, 200-pound workhorse Riley Beiro, a first-team All-Northern Region running back from McLean High School who had 47 carries for 284 yards in a late-season game with Langley. Beiro had 23 touchdowns during the regular season.
Blane Mason, another Hokie walk-on candidate who was mentioned in last week’s Notebook Plus, was named first-team All-Northwest Region on defense and second team on offense. Mason was also named second-team All-Group AA by virginiapreps.com.
The Hokies have their usual collection of kicking candidates, including place-kicker Conor Goulding from Gulf Coast High School in Naples, Fla., and punter Ethan Keyserling from East Chapel Hill (N.C.) High School.
Snapper Joe St. Germain from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., has accepted a walk-on offer from the Hokies after taking official visits to Tech, Colorado and Florida.
RETURING TO THE CAVALIERS, George Wythe football coach H.S. Ingo had an interesting tale to share about Lester, whose father, Steve, played at Richmond in the early 1980s.
Drew Lester had taken an official visit to Drake, which plays non-scholarship Division I-AA football in the Pioneer Football League, which includes Davidson.
“Drew, myself and his dad were sitting down after his visit to Drake,” Ingo said. “I just asked what his No. 1 choice was and he said he wanted to go to UVa. He wants to be a pre-med major.
“I said, ‘Well, let’s try this.’ Virginia has a new recruiting coach for this area, coach [Scott] Wachenheim. I picked up the phone and called him. I got a voice message and then he called me back 10 minutes later.
“I filled him on Drew and we had a discussion. He wanted to know if he had film. Turns out, they did. He said he’d get back to me. A lot of time, when recruiting people tell you that, you don’t hear back from them for quite a while, if at all.
“About 15 minutes later, while we were still sitting there, he called back and he said, ‘This kid can play.’ And, I said, ‘That’s what I’ve been telling everybody.’ Everybody thought he was too short because he was only 6-2.
“He said they’d actually had another walk-on walk out on them that day and that they had a spot if Drew could get in school, which wasn’t going to be a problem because Drew was a 4.06 student.
“Right now, they’re talking him about being a center. He went down to Fork Union for a tryout and they moved him to center, which I thought they would because of his height. He had played some center previously and could shotgun snap.
“He’d been making our line calls for four years.”
From start to finish, the process of Lester becoming a Wahoo lasted maybe one hour.
Lester’s dad had played at Richmond at the same time as new UVa coach Mike London, “but, it’s funny; that really didn’t help a whole lot when we tried to get Drew into Richmond,” Ingo said.
SPEAKING OF FORK UNION, postgraduate coach John Shuman reports that two players in The Roanoke Times Top 100 will be coming his way, including Taylor Evans, a 6-4, 275-pound offensive lineman from Broad Run High School in Loudoun County.
Evans, a first-team All-Group AA selection, was rated the No. 61 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times. Shuman also landed the No. 46 player on the list, Andrew Cordasco, a 6-5, 250-pound tight end from Jamestown High School in Williamsburg.
Cordasco made an in-season commitment to Richmond but re-opened his recruiting in hopes of attracting Division I-A attention. Shuman was careful in his pursuit of Cordasco because new Richmond coach Latrell Scott is one of his former assistants.
