• Offensive lineman
• Centreville High School, Clifton, VA (Head Coach Mike Skinner)
• 6-5, 285 pounds
• Runs a 5.0 in the forty
• Rankings: Rivals #17 (4 stars), Insiders #44 (3 stars)
• Recruiting coach: Lorenzo Ward
• Hobbies: Cars

As a 38-year old father of three, I'll admit that when I interview recruits, it's often with a tinge of jealousy. These kids are young. They're strong. They're big enough and fast enough to play a game that I would get killed playing at my size of 5-8, 160. They get to play a great game in front of thousands of screaming fans.

Perhaps most importantly, they get to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and they get to build relationships with fellow players and coaches and experience things that they'll remember for the rest of their lives.

But during a recent interview with VT signee Matt Welsh, the big offensive lineman from Centreville High School in Centreville, Virginia, I found a new reason to be jealous.

"I had a deal with my parents where if I got a scholarship, I got a car," Welsh told me. "And so I got a 2003 Mustang Cobra."

A pause. "Uh, the SVT Cobra?" I asked him.

"Yeah, the supercharged one."

As I said, that made me officially jealous of Matt Welsh, who owns a nicer car in high school than I've ever owned in my life. For those of you not up to speed on modern muscle cars, he's talking about the $35,000 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra, a hopped-up Mustang: 4.6 liter supercharged V-8. 390 horsepower, 390 lb-ft of torque. 4.6 seconds zero to 60, 12.9 second quarter mile at 112 miles per hour.

How does an 18-year-old control himself, with that kind of power at his disposal? "Eh, I've got good discipline," Welsh said, a chuckle in his voice.

The Mustang Cobra and its sub-five-second zero-to-sixty time actually serves as a very good analogy to Matt Welsh's young football career, which accelerated from a standstill to top speed in similarly short time.

From Nowhere to VT Verbal

In August of 2001, entering his junior year, Welsh had never started a football game at the high school level. Four months later, he was a first-team all-state offensive lineman, and five months after that, in early May of 2002, he had verbaled to play football at Virginia Tech.

The VT verbal topped off a quick rise to high school football stardom for Matt Welsh. Just a few years earlier, he had never even played football, not even competing until he played ninth grade football at Centreville.

"To be honest, I was never really into football that much [growing up]," Welsh said. "My parents weren't really sports parents. My mom would help me get into sports, but my dad and I were always gear-heads. We liked cars a lot. So I wasn't really too into it, and I never really thought about it until eighth grade, when I wanted to play, but I was too big -- I would have had to lose about 30 pounds to play. I weighed about 215 -- so I wanted until freshman year."

Centreville coach Mike Skinner, who coached the team to the state championship in 2000 and playoff losses to powerful Robinson High in 2001 and 2002, had Welsh on the varsity team his sophomore year, but he barely played. "He didn't start as a sophomore, but that was the year we won the state championship," Skinner remembered." We had our entire line back from the year before, when we had lost to Varina in the state semis. Then we returned everybody on the o-line. If Matt had been at another school, or in a different year for us, he would have started as a tenth-grader. But there just wasn't any space for him. He was about 6-4, 230, so he physically wasn't quite there yet."

Players in front of Welsh included Will Montgomery, now a walk-on offensive lineman at VT. So Welsh patiently waited and then got to show his stuff his junior year.

"He played great his junior year," said Skinner. "He was first team all-state. As a junior, we ran the single-wing, which is a very simple offense, with blocking down."

Welsh said, "Junior year is when I started for the first time, and after junior year, when I started getting the first things coming in the mail [from colleges], that's when it hit me that I could play at the college level. Because I had never thought about it, really. I never thought that's what could happen and that it was a possibility. But when the first one came in the mail, I thought, 'Hey, I do have a chance to go somewhere.'"

That junior season earned Welsh two scholarship offers, including the one he wanted: Virginia Tech. But the Hokies weren't the first team to show an interest in Welsh.

"The first thing that came in the mail was from UVa," he said. "I got the impression they were pretty interested. I think this is pretty typical of them, but I got tons of mail from UVa. Like pretty much every day, I had two or three letters. I felt like they were really interested, and I sat and talked with Al Groh a lot. I went down there for something, maybe their junior day, and he pulled me into his office and was talking to me."

But though the Cavaliers were the first ones in, they weren't quick to offer him a written scholarship. Tech beat them to that.

"Coach Skinner had been talking with the Tech guys," Welsh said. "I didn't get much in the mail from Tech, but Coach Skinner was always telling me, 'they're interested, they're thinking about you,' just letting me know that they were around. He told me they were going to offer me a scholarship, and it finally came. Once that came, then UVa got wind of that, and they sent theirs over right away. Coach Groh had told me I was offered, but I never got the written offer from them until after Tech offered. And then I got it right away, the next day."

The in-state battle for his services never really materialized. In early May of 2002, Welsh verbaled to Tech, becoming their first verbal for the 2003 recruiting class. "I just felt Tech was better for me," he said simply. "That's where I felt more comfortable."

In the spring after his junior year, Welsh went to junior days at a number of colleges he was interested in, and VT really stood out for him.

"My junior year, I looked at a couple places. I had been down to UVa maybe twice, and I took a trip down to Tennessee once. I was at Maryland for their junior day. I think most of the times I went anywhere it was for a junior day, just, you know, getting an idea of the places. And Tech was just the best one, I thought. Fairly close to home, good program, good people."

Skinner remembered it like that, too. "Tennessee liked him a lot, Virginia liked him a lot. But to be honest, Tech is such a popular school up in this area -- that�s where my son went, my daughter's going there -- that once they started showing interest, it was pretty much over. Matt showed some interest in other schools, but Tech, that's where he wanted to go. If he wasn't a football player, he would have gone to Tech. It's the number one school up here now for kids to apply to."

Of Virginia's recruitment of Welsh, Skinner said, "They were involved. I think they got an early feel that Matt liked Tech, and they didn't go after him as hard because of that. Last year, I had two kids sign with UVa [Marcus Hamilton and Kenneth Tynes]. They [UVa] come in here and we have a great relationship with them, but Matt just liked Tech.

"They asked what they had done wrong and all that stuff, and I just told them, hey, Matt's a Virginia Tech guy. Tech asked the same thing about Marcus Hamilton, the defensive back I had last year. Hey, he was a UVa guy. What are you gonna do?"

Welsh was down for a Virginia Tech spring practice prior to the 2002 Spring Game. "I got to sit in with the offensive line before one of their practices while they went over their plays. I met with Coach Stinespring, and Coach Beamer, and Coach Ward. The people just seemed to genuinely care about you and what you're trying to do in college They had really nice facilities -- everything was probably the best of all the places I had seen."

Including Tennessee, a rich, formidable recruiting foe in the powerful SEC?

"I actually really wasn't very impressed with Tennessee's facilities," Welsh said nonchalantly. "They had a nice indoor field, but the weight room really didn't compare to Virginia Tech's. The locker room was very plain, very basic. I didn't really get to go all the way in, but what I saw, the lockers were plain wood, with a tile floor. It looked like the ones in my high school. I really wasn't impressed at all by the Tennessee facilities, and Tech was really the nicest, I thought."

So he verbaled to Tech, and that was that. "That�s the nice thing about UVa and Tech," Skinner said, complimenting both programs. "Once one of my kids makes a decision one way or the other, the other one will back off, unlike some other places." He then chuckled.

With a great junior year behind him, his college destination picked, and his weight up from 255 to 275, Welsh got ready for what he thought would be a great senior year.

Fate had other plans.

"The Pop"

"He unfortunately got hurt in the sixth game of the season on a goal line play, when somebody fell on his leg," Skinner said, "He tore his MCL. Of the knee injuries, that's the one you can recover from."

But of course, Welsh didn't know that right away.

"I was finishing a block," he said, "blocking downfield on a linebacker, and the run came behind me. I think about three guys dove in to make the tackle and went into the side of my knee. It tore the MCL.

"I knew something was wrong [chuckles]. I had never been hurt before, but you know what people say about injuries, what it feels like. I knew something was wrong. I heard the pop, and I couldn't move my leg.

"I was thinking the worst. Then they said, it's just the MCL, not the ACL, and I couldn't remember which one was worse. I was like, 'Which one's the bad one? Which one's the bad one?' Luckily, it wasn't the bad one.

"At first, my parents were thinking the season was over, but Coach and I were thinking it would be just a little while. That was the first district game, and we were aiming to get me back by the last regular season game or the playoffs."

Centreville, led by Welsh and linebacker Brett Warren (also a VT signee), forged a 9-0 record before facing 9-0 rival Westfield in their tenth game, a 21-14 loss. That sent the Wildcats on the road for the first round of the playoffs, where they lost to Robinson, 23-14, and their season was over.

"I made it back for the last game of the season, which was the game against Westfield, and then I got to play in the playoff game against Robinson," Welsh said. "The knee felt good. You can't go out there and play worrying about getting hurt, because that's when it will happen. You just have to put it out of your mind."

The layoff due to injury meant that Welsh was out of the running for the all-state team. "With him missing four or five games this year, we didn't nominate him for all-state," Coach Skinner explained. "I talked to Matt about it, and with him being so good as a junior and getting an offer from Tech, I don't think it really mattered that much. Had he been healthy, he would have made all-state without question."

Skinner thinks Welsh's senior year was good for him, because it expanded the skills he developed as a junior, when Centreville ran the single wing. "This year, we ran the I, which is more complicated, because you have to go left and right and go find guys. I think that was good for him. It will help him when he gets in college.

"Matt will go there as a 310-pounder that is extremely strong and a good athlete, but for him to adjust to that speed, it's going to take a couple of years. I think he'll be a guard in college. He moves very well, that's his biggest asset. He's got quick feet, moves very well, and is very smart. Guard is a little more complicated in college, but he'll pick it up.

"He's about 290 now, 292. He really looks good. Will Montgomery was in here over spring break, and we had the two of them together, and they look similar. Will's 305, I think. Before, when Will came in, you could see the difference between Will and Matt. Matt just didn't have the thickness. But he's getting it done. Matt'll leave our school benching over 400 and squatting over 500."

For Matt Welsh, the only thing to do now is to continue to build up the strength in his knee and elsewhere, and to wait for August and his enrollment at Tech to arrive.

He knows he needs to work on his strength and hone his game, and it's interesting to hear what part of it he feels needs work. "I'm really working on getting a little more nasty. I'm just not mean enough," he said. "I play intense, I just don't have the wildness that you need a little bit. But I'm getting better at turning it on."

Welsh, who is fully qualified, is finishing his high school academic career strong, saying that he's having his best year as a senior. He'll graduate with about a 3.15 at a school that he considers "pretty tough academically."

Then comes Tech football. "He's ready to go," says Skinner. "As a matter of fact, he's getting a little antsy."

TSL Pass Subscriber Questions

Ad nauseum: Frank Beamer says some guys are VT guys and some guys are UVa guys. What makes you a VT guy?

MW: I don't know, really. You root for them when you see them, when I was younger. To think that you could be going there and playing for them, with the people that have been there before, and just be part of the program � that's just exciting.

Govt83: How's your recovery/training coming along?

MW: It's coming along good. The knee feels totally normal, I'm working on staying in shape, running, working on it and moving around on it.

RUHokie: Were you upset in anyway when the Tech coaches decided to go ahead and sign three offensive linemen this recruiting class instead of the two they had talked about earlier, and did they keep you informed of their change of plans?

(Related question) Hokiestud: One reported reason you committed so early was that the VT coaches had told you that we were only going to be taking two O-linemen this year, and you didn't want to be left out. After you verbaled and as the recruiting year went along, it became obvious that VT was going to be taking more than just two OLs. How did the VT coaches square that with you, and did other schools try to use it to get you to decommit?

MW: Nobody tried to use that to get me to decommit. They (Tech coaches) didn't really say anything to me about it or clarify it. But I didn't really need any clarification, that was fine with me. It didn't really bother me, because no matter where you go, you're still going to have competition. So it didn't really bother me.

Hokieblake: Matt, what is your current weight? I think you are listed around 275, is that correct? How big would you like to get to play on the offensive line at Tech?

MW: I'm about 285 right now. My bench press has plateaud right now at about 375. Squatting -- I haven't maxed lately, I'm still just working the leg, so I don�t want to do anything heavy with it. I think I'll top out [weight-wise] in the low 300's right now. People see me right now and guess how much I weigh, and they guess things like 230, so I'm thinking I can hold at last a little bit more.

(question continued) What OL position do you want to play?

MW: I think I'll probably wind up at tackle.

(question continued): Are you and Tripp Carroll close?

MW: Tripp Carroll has called me a couple of times. I think he's a good guy. He seems really nice.

LovettsHokie: Matt, what goals are you considering for yourself for this year? Do you anticipate starting or redshirting? Where do you see yourself now and compare that with where you want to be one year from now?

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