Tech football recruit Willie Pile won the MVP award for the Virginia team in this past weekend's "Chesapeake Classic," which pits a team of Maryland all-stars against a team of Northern Virginia all-stars.

By the accounts I've read, and the portion of the game I watched, Pile was one of a few "men among boys" in the game. Playing as a defensive back (the position the Hokies recruited him for), he intercepted two passes, controlled the middle of the field, and played well on special teams. Pile even played some receiver, and his performance wound up earning him the MVP award for the Virginia squad.

I remember when Pile announced his intention to go to Virginia Tech. It was late in the recruiting season, everyone was concentrating on Houseright and Vick, and Pile was very much an "oh-by-the-way" recruit, tacked on almost as an afterthought.

Pile was ranked 31^st in the state by Doug Doughty, and generally, a ranking of that level in the state of Virginia indicates a player who is 1-AA material, not 1-A. And true to form, Pile had received interest from William and Mary and Richmond, but not any of the "big boys."

But when you start looking at Pile's statistics, that's when you start to wonder why in the world he didn't receive more interest from the bigger schools. He's listed at 6-2, 180, is fast, and was named 1^st Team All-State at the AAA level. He was named Offensive Player of the Year in the Northern Region, and when you consider that the Hokies recruited him as a DB, it becomes obvious that he is a gifted all-around football player.

So he must be a marginal student, right? Wrong. Pile racked up a 3.5 GPA and an SAT score over 1200, and the fact that William and Mary and Richmond recruited him is a testament to his ability in the classroom. In this day and age, colleges jump all over decent football players with those kinds of grades and are happy to get early commitments from them.

When I attended this year's "Recruiting Roundup" at Boomers and Greg Roberts' Sports Club early this year, the film that was shown of Pile revealed a tall, quick, fast football player. And now he has won the Chesapeake Classic MVP award with some athletic plays and a commanding presence on the field, so there doesn't seem to be any answer as to why this talented athlete and excellent student was ranked so low and wasn't sought after by more 1-A schools.

In addition to receiving interest from W&M, Richmond, and Tech, Pile was offered a scholarship by Virginia, but don't be fooled by that. The Wahoos reportedly offered Pile a scholarship only after the Hokies did, and supposedly didn't show much interest prior to the Hokies' offer.

So, Pile appears to be a sleeper, the kind of player that Virginia Tech's success has been built on. Although not highly recruited, he seems to have the talent to play at the 1-A level. Let's keep an eye on him, and I'll bet we won't be disappointed.

There is yet more material about Druck at The Sporting News web site. There's a column written by TSN columnist Dennis Dillon that rehashes Druck's adventures of last year and his current efforts to improve himself. Dillon wrote the article on the 29^th, and it was linked to TSN's NFL front page:

Offseason isn't time off for Druckenmiller - The Sporting News

In other news about former Hokies, TSN also reports that Dell Curry will become a free agent on July 1 (today), and it's questionable if the Charlotte Hornets will resign him (What? Dell, not a Hornet? Blasphemy!)

The Hornets drafted a young 6-6 guard from Iowa named Ricky Davis, and TSN reports that although it makes it appear that this means the Hornets may let Dell go, the Hornets' top brass would like to sign all of their free agents to new contracts. Wanting to do that, and actually doing it, however, are two different things.

Although there isn't any new "hard news" to report on Al Clark's knee, it will very soon become Topic #1 around the Hokie football camp, and in fact, it probably already is.

Publicly, the doctors are saying that Al is progressing well, and he probably is. The knee may even be pain-free, at this point.

The problem is, the injured knee is weak, and building it back up to strength is an additional rehabilitation task over and above the simple healing of the injury. So even after Al's knee "gets better," we may still see him limping around, because he hasn't yet been able to build it (and the rest of the affected leg) back up to strength.

If Al can't play this year, the Hokies will likely go with Dave Meyer at starter, and the backups will be Denny Randolph and at least one of the incoming freshmen (Travis Turner, Grant Noel, or Michael Vick).

If Al can't play, I don't look for any of the incoming freshmen to get promoted to the starting job over Meyer. As talented as the incoming group may be, starting a freshman at quarterback involves a tremendous number of compromises in the play book, and heck, it's just not a good idea to throw a true freshman quarterback to the wolves.

Remember, football practice doesn't start in earnest until after August 12^th, which leaves only 24 days from that point until the opener against ECU on September 5^th. It is almost impossible to teach a quarterback an offense in just over three weeks, and when you throw in the fact that the quarterback is a college freshman who has to go to classes and get acclimated to college life … well, let's just say that Meyer, and probably even Randolph, will be Tech's quarterback long before the three-headed monster of Turner/Noel/Vick will get a shot at it.

And if I'm wrong, I'll kiss a Wahoo.

• The Hokies' football season ticket sales record is 16,675 tickets, and as the mailing date for tickets approaches (tickets will be mailed in August, the ticket office tells me), we should know soon if Tech is going to exceed that number this year.

• Former Hokie tight end Bryan Jennings is helping out former Wahoo Herman Moore this week with Moore's "Catch 84" football camp. Jennings spent time with the Tennessee Oilers and the San Diego Chargers in the last year, but Greg Roberts of Channel 10 reports that Bryan is currently a free agent.

• Real World update: this week on MTV's The Real World, cast member Nathan Blackburn once again sported the same Virginia Tech sweatshirt that he wore in the casting special three weeks ago. The camera clearly showed the sweatshirt, which is really more of a pullover sweater, brown with a small white VT crest on the chest. For the record, Nathan is seriously scrapping via phone with his Virginia Tech girlfriend, who is back in Blacksburg while Nathan does his five-month stint in The Real World house in Seattle. If they keep fighting like they are, we probably won't see that VT sweatshirt much more.

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