The football team received a double-whammy this past week when it was announced that (1) Robert Adams of William Campbell High, one of the Hokies highest-rated recruits, failed to qualifiy academically, and (2) recruit Donald Harris, one of the highest-rated players in the D.C. area, will not be entering Tech until the second semester, due to a severe knee injury suffered in, of all things, an all-star game.

Adams failed by one point to make the required score on the ACT test and will enroll as a partial qualifier this fall. He may receive scholarship aid and will be allowed to practice with the team, but he won't be able to play and, worst of all, will lose a year's eligibility. Although Adams did not make the All-State AA team this year, he is very highly regarded, due mostly to his "potential." And you know what the Hokie coaches do with potential - they turn it into here-and-now contributions.

Adams's loss depletes the defensive line, an area of concern, even further. Adams was not going to be redshirted because the Tech coaches thought he might be needed on a line that returns only Cornell Brown and Waverly Jackson as players with significant experience.

As for Harris, he blew out his knee in an all-star game (a big waste of time, when you've already been recruited and signed, in my opinion) and had reconstructive surgery. Although the article I read didn't say so, Harris should have all four years of eligibility coming to him.

Now the good news: to fill in the hole left by Adams, the Hokies inked Corey Moore, a defensive end from Holmes Junior College in Mississippi. Moore originally signed with Mississippi out of high school, but Ole Miss immediately went through a coaching change, and Moore went to a JC instead. He resisted overtures from Arizona State, and more impressively, Tennessee (yeah, that Tennessee) to sign with Tech. At 6-0, 215 pounds, Moore is small, and I wonder if the Hokies will play him at end, or switch him to linebacker. The really good news about Moore is that he had a 3.9 GPA in high school and a 4.0 at Holmes, and he'll have three years of eligibility at Tech. He will report to practice on August 10th, so he'll help out this year.

Another piece of totally unrelated news: 1970's Tech QB and former Miami Dolphin QB Don Strock has surfaced in Baltimore, where he is now the QB coach for the Cleveland Browns .... er, Baltimore Ravens.

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