Thursday, January 24, 2008
Offering Evans make sense on a lot of fronts
UVa needs new Hampton-Newport News recruiter
Doug Doughty
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In recruiting, sometimes you’ve got to take a player to get a player.
Phoebus High School football coach Bill Dee doesn’t disagree with that premise, but he wants it known, Virginia wouldn’t be “taking” a player by making an offer to Reid Evans.
“He’s not a big kid and he’s not a blazer,” Dee said earlier this week, “but the kid can play. A lot of times, people get caught up in combine numbers, but he’s put up numbers on the field.
“I’d put his statistics up against anybody’s. He had as good a year as any receiver in the state and he plays both sides of the ball.”
Evans, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound wide receiver and defensive back, will be taking an official recruiting visit to Virginia this weekend. Dee concedes that part of the hold-up in Evans’ recruiting is academic-related, but the Cavaliers can’t afford to drag their heels, not after what happened with A.J. Price.
Virginia might have been able to get Price if it had offered him sooner, but, by the time the Cavaliers anted up, Penn State was already a player and the Nittany Lions got a commitment from the South Lakes Reston wideout before he could take an official visit to Virginia.
Evans, who is being recruited as a wide receiver, had 68 receptions for 1,135 yards and eight touchdowns this past season. He also intercepted 11 passes and has 18 interceptions over two seasons.
An assistant coach for one of Virginia’s rivals told me that Evans might be the best football player in the state.
Keep in mind, he didn’t say “best prospect,” but the Cavaliers can’t afford to quibble at this point. Their recruiting year is fizzling and they’ve commitments from only two in-state players (three, if you want to count Austin Paztor, a Canadian who played this year at Fork Union Military Academy).
Phoebus is one of the most prominent programs in the state and has been something of a Virginia Tech pipeline in recent years. Dee doesn’t discount the effect that an Evans commitment to Virginia would have on his younger players.
“If you take a chance on Evans, well, then, there you go,” Dee said. “We’ve got two of the top three or four prospects in the junior class [quarterback Tahj Boyd and defensive lineman Dominik Davenport]. I’d have to think that the state’s top quarterback would have to notice where his favorite receiver is going.
“People say, ‘Dee’s a Tech guy.’ I want good relations with Virginia also. I’d love to see a Virginia offer for this kid and I think he’d make a hell of a player for them. For either school to be successful, they need in-state kids.”
Dee compares Evans to D.J. Parker, an unheralded Phoebus quarterback who was lost in the recruiting hubbub surrounding teammate Xavier Adibi. Parker committed to the Hokies late in the recruiting process.
“D.J. Parker had one scholarship and what was he for Tech, a three-year starter who has a chance to play in the NFL? I’m not from the state but I’ve been here for 30 years. Now, more than ever, I like to see my kids stay in state.”
Media gadfly Jeff White likes to point out the wise move that Virginia Tech made when it took a commitment from Kevin Lewis, seen as a marginal Division I-A prospect when he signed with the Hokies out of Varina. By taking Kevin Lewis, Tech was almost assured of getting his younger brother, Jonathan, and both turned out to be effective players for the Hokies.
There’s no telling how history might have changed if Virginia had made an early offer to Sean Glennon, a quarterback from Westfield High School in Fairfax County. Glennon went to Tech, where he was joined by wide receiver Eddie Royal, and the Westfield assembly line has since turned out such national-caliber prospects as Evan Royster and Mike Glennon, all of whom have rejected the Cavaliers.
OBVIOUSLY, WITH the departure of defensive coordinator Mike London to Richmond, where he will be the head coach, Virginia will need an assistant capable of competing in the Hampton-Newport News area that was London’s recruiting territory.
I asked Dee what he thought about former Cavalier Chris Slade, who played for Al Groh with the New England Patriots and was a schoolboy star at Tabb High School.
“I don’t know if Chris has any coaching or recruiting background or whether he would be interested, but, if you’re talking about a guy who would give them instant credibility down here, it would be Chris,” Dee said. “He certainly has the personality for it.”
In an e-mail exchange this week, Slade indicated that he would at least listen to a Cavalier overture.
