CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia introduced a football recruiting class Wednesday that was as popular with the business office as it was with the fan base.

Nobody will accuse coach Mike London of breaking the budget.

A list of 26 signees released by the Cavaliers included 17 players from Virginia and six from Maryland.

It didn't do much for the coaches' frequent-flyer mileage but the staff was beaming after re-asserting itself in Virginia.

As recently as 2008, head coach Al Groh brought in a class that included three in-state players, two of whom were gone by the start of the 2010 season.

This year, four of the Cavaliers' recruits were rated among the top 10 prospects in Virginia, including All-Group AAA "utility" player Dominique Terrell from Osbourn High School in Manassas.

"Terrell is unbelievably fast and can make you miss in a phone booth," UVa assistant Shawn Moore said. "He brings something that we haven't had around here."

Terrell was one of two UVa recruits who revealed their decisions at news conferences Wednesday.

The other was Darius Jennings, a quarterback from Baltimore's Gilman School whom the Cavaliers project as a wide receiver.

Jennings was the Gatorade state player of the year in Maryland and the Cavaliers also landed the Gatorade player of the year from Virginia, cornerback Demetrius Nicholson from Bayside High School in Virginia Beach.

Nicholson is one of nine UVa signees that hail from the Hampton Roads area that frequently is identified by its telephone area code, 757.

London, a graduate of Bethel High School in Hampton, is from that area. So is Chip West, the UVa assistant who was assigned "757" as his recruiting territory.

West, who had recruited Hampton Roads for James Madison and most recently Old Dominion, said he was aware of Virginia's reputation for indifferent recruiting results in his area. He viewed it as a challenge.

"Always," he said. "But from the time I was hired Jan. 4 or 5 last year and went on the road, there was a good vibe. There were a lot of coaches willing to help us."

Two of Virginia's signees, quarterback David Watford from Hampton High School and linebacker Daquan Romero from Phoebus High School in Hampton, enrolled at Virginia last month and can be counted as a members of UVa's 2010 signing class.

As a result, the Cavaliers are safely within the NCAA limit of 25 scholarship freshmen who can begin workouts next summer, although Virginia could have exceeded that total.

Upper Marlboro, Md., defensive back Jordan Lomax, who had committed to the Cavs in May, re-opened his recruiting and signed with Iowa.

The Cavaliers also were disappointed when Bowie, Md., defensive back A.J. Hendy picked Maryland over UVa on Tuesday night, and then linebacker Curtis Grant from Richmond's Hermitage High School opted for Ohio State on Wednesday.

Grant, who had Virginia in his final four, was rated the No. 1 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times and the No. 2 prospect in the country by rivals.com.

"It's unfortunate that he's one that got away," said London, who had a relationship with Grant dating back several years.

Grant had a five-star rating in the rivals.com system where five stars is the highest. In 2010, Virginia had one four-star signee, Morgan Moses, who actually was a four-star in both 2009 and 2010 because he prepped for a year.

There are five four-star signees in this class: Nicholson, Jennings, Terrell, running back Clifton Richardson from Newport News and defensive back Brandon Phelps from Damascus, Md. Phelps is the son of ex-Roanoker Gary Phelps, who played football at Cave Spring and UVa

Those five and offensive-line signee Jay Whitmire from Alexandria were named SuperPrep All-Americans.

In 2002, London was the recruiting coordinator when UVa signed a class that was ranked 12th in the country by rivals.com. As of late Wednesday afternoon, this year's class was ranked 26th but London couldn't have felt any better.

After all, the Cavaliers are coming off a 4-8 season, their third losing record in succession, which didn't seem to matter to the prospects.

"At some point in time, as you recruit, you've got to be able to point to a little bit of success," defensive coordinator Jim Reid said.

"The only recruiting weekend we had was [for] Miami and that helped us. And, you know why it helped us? It helped us because we had five interceptions and won the game."