With most of the top in-state talent in the 2006 class heading out-of-state, there is no doubt coaches from Virginia and Virginia Tech are looking forward to a stronger in-state performance with the 2007 group. It is too early to tell exactly where the new class of stars will go but, at least initially, the amount of kids intent on leaving the state seems significantly less and I still believe the 2006 exodus is just a one-year wonder.
In this first edition of Around the State, I was able to gather info on a number of top kids including, among others, QB Russell Wilson ; RB/ATH Max Milien; OL William Alvarez and Khalil Latif ; LBs Terance Fells-Danzer, Aaron Taliaferro , J’Courtney Williams; ATHs Savion Frazier and Colin Pehanick .
Junior day…
UVa will host a junior day on Saturday. Some of the prominent in-state players scheduled to attend include QB Peter Lalich (offer), RB Max Milien (offer), OL William Alvarez (offer), LB Aaron Taliaferro (offer) and ATH Bradley Starks , among others. Some top out-of-state recruits expected to attend include New York OL John Elliott (offer) and North Carolina RB/WR Greg Little (offer).
Stay tuned for updates on the prospects visiting this weekend as well the prospects mentioned below in the coming weeks.
Northern Virginia…
Hylton (Woodbridge, VA) offensive tackle William Alvarez is off to a good start offer-wise, as he has official offers from Maryland and Virginia with an offer from Virginia Tech on the way. In addition to those programs, more ACC schools and others such as Penn State are showing serious interest. Alvarez camped at Virginia last summer and he certainly likes the Cavaliers, but head coach Lou Sorrentino feels it’s too early to name a leader and doesn’t believe Alvarez will decide early.
“I don’t see that happening,” Sorrentino said of Alvarez making an early decision. “He’s been to a few junior days. I think he’s got an open mind. Virginia is there – he went to the camp and it was a place he liked – but now he’s getting attention from a lot of places. He hasn’t talked at all about making an early decision.”
The 2005 season was Alvarez’ first as primarily an offensive player (he was primarily a defensive player as a sophomore)…he did well, earning VHSCA second-team all-state honors for his performance.
“He’s still new to the position,” Sorrentino said. “This past year was his first really starting on offense. I put him on defense his sophomore year and he played more defense than offense. This year, he was primarily on offense and he was dominating at times. He’s a big guy with quick feet. He showed a toughness that I liked a lot. His highlights are awesome. Once he gets on his man, he’s stays on him. He just has so much upside.”
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Virginia has offered 6-2, 230-pound Culpeper linebacker prospect Terance Fells-Danzer, who also camped there last summer. Both Virginia and Virginia Tech are showing heavy interest in Gar-Field athlete Savion Frazier and Yorktown running back/athlete Max Milien.
Fells-Danzer didn’t have a spectacular junior season thanks in large part to a nagging ankle injury. Culpeper head coach Greg Martz would love to use his star on both sides of the ball when healthy, but only played him at linebacker last season.
“We wanted him to be our primary ball carrier last year, but he had a freak accident in practice and hurt his ankle,” Martz said. “So we made him play defense more so he would make the hit instead of being hit. He finished with 50 tackles, three sacks, and he had one defensive touchdown. Again, he did that with a hurt ankle and missing a game or two.”
A strong athlete, Fells-Danzer recently squatted a max of 490 pounds, power-cleaned 275 pounds, benched 390 pounds and posted a 31-inch vertical leap. Off the field, he is a solid student as well and carries above a 3.0 grade point average.
As for a decision, Martz doesn’t expect one soon.
“He’s looking at a lot of schools,” Martz said. “He likes UVa a lot. He’s very high on them and they’ve done a good job of showing interest, but I think he wants to look around. I think he wants to stay close to home when it’s all said and done, but he does want to check out his options.”
Savion Frazier , a 6-2, 210-pound prospect, could project as a safety or linebacker on the next level. Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech have invited him up to junior days or to see the respective campuses. He has family in Alabama, so it wouldn’t be a surprised to see him leave the state if the opportunity is there.
“He has good size and speed, but the best thing about him may be his work ethic,” Gar-Field head coach Joe Mangano said. “And he’s intelligent. He’s a 3.0 student.”
Max Milien had a solid year running and receiving for head coach Bruce Hanson. The 6-1, 198-pound prospect had 140 carries for 1,067 yards and 12 touchdowns, averaging 7.6 yards per carry. He added 26 catches for 414 yards and nine scores.
“[Max] improved as the year went on,” Hanson said. “Our quarterback was our featured back. As the year went on, Max didn’t get as many 20 carry games even though he really ran well towards the end of the year. Next year, I see him getting about 17 or 18 carries a game.”
According to Hanson, Al Groh has been in twice to evaluate Milien. The Cavs have now offered. Virginia Tech, which is where Max’s brother attends, is showing heavy interest as well.
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After speaking with these coaches, I quickly learned how respected and highly thought of Osbourn High School quarterback Brandon Hogan is. An all-state performer and region player of the year, the 5-11, 172-pound Hogan is a dual-threat signal caller who threw for close to 2,500 yards and 36 touchdowns and rushed for almost 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2005.
“He’s an extremely talented player,” Culpeper head coach Lou Sorrentino said of Hogan.
Osbourn head coach Steve Schultze says “Brandon’s the best skill position kid I’ve ever coached. We put the ball in his hands a lot. He’s got great speed as a quarterback. He’s a Vince Young-type without the size. He’s a great defensive back, too.”
In terms of 1A interest, Schultze says Maryland “is talking scholarship offer” and Virginia is “excited about him. I just talked to Coach London recently and he said he’s excited.” Hogan needs to raise his grade point average and has yet to take the SAT. If he gets a good score on the SAT, Schultze feels “he could go where he wants to.”
Osbourn has another possible Division 1A prospect in Marcus Hyde, a 6-3, 215-pound linebacker who had 149 total tackles last season. UVa, Notre Dame and Ohio State have made early inquiries. Hyde went to several UVa games last fall.
Central Virginia…
Varina defensive back/quarterback Davon Morgan recently added an offer from Michigan. Virginia Tech, a program Morgan certainly likes a lot, was the first to extend an official offer. An outstanding player, Morgan should receive quite a few more offers before May.
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Collegiate (Richmond, VA) signal caller Russell Wilson had a terrific junior season in leading his team to an 11-0 record and a state title. The 5-11, 180-pound dual-threat quarterback completed 205 passes out of 361 attempts (56.8 percent) for 3,287 yards, 40 touchdowns to only 11 interceptions. He rushed 132 times for 634 yards and 15 touchdowns.
“He’s the best high school quarterback I’ve seen in a long time,” St. Anne’s Belfield head coach John Blake said. “He’s a tremendous athlete and the kid’s arm strength is incredible.”
Dartmouth and Richmond have offered, but no Division 1A school has stepped up at this point. UNC, UVa and Virginia Tech are showing interest, however, and Wilson plans to visit all three this spring according to head coach Charlie McFall.
“He has a good football mind, he has raw talent and a lot of skills,” McFall said of Wilson. “He sees the field well, he has good speed and he’s got a cannon for an arm. The only thing he lacks is height…at least that’s what the college coaches tell me. But there have been a lot of short quarterbacks who have done a real nice job in college.”
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Wilson earned Richmond Times-Dispatch metro player of the year honors for his performance. Joining him on the first-team squad was promising Manchester lineman Khalil Latif . The 6-4 ½, 290-pound Latif had a breakout season this past year, and caught the attention of one of the area’s best defensive ends.
“He plays offensive tackle and defensive end,” Manchester head coach Tom Hall said of Latif. “He stands out when you watch him on film. He had over 80 pancake blocks for us this past year. He’s a rare talent who has abilities you can’t teach. He runs extremely well for his size. He has really long arms. He played against John Graves last year and Graves came up to him after the game and told him he was the best lineman he had ever played against. Khalil came into last season as an unknown and left being a player everyone knows about.”
Hall says Latif currently does not have any official offers but is receiving heavy interest from a number of ACC schools.
“I asked him to give me a list of his top five schools, and on the list were Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Florida and Florida State,” Hall said. “He also likes Michigan and Ohio State. I think he’s going to go through the process. He’s going to a junior day at Maryland [this Saturday] and he’s going to a junior day at UVa in a couple of weeks.”
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Heading up the road to Charlottesville, St. Anne’s coach Blake boasts several talented players. The one with the best opportunity for a 1A offer is 6-1 ½, 195-pound running back/safety/kicker Colin Pehanick . Pehanick, who earned all-state honors at RB, DB, PK, P and KR (2nd team), also plays basketball and lacrosse.
“People have told me that, with his size, he will be a h-back or safety type of kid,” Blake said. “He’s one of the top athletes I’ve ever coached.”
Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech are showing interest and reviewing film. There are no 1A offers at this point. As a junior, Pehanick rushed for 1,243 yards (8.8 average per carry) and scored 23 touchdowns. Defensively, he made 32 solo tackles (58 total) and had five interceptions. As a place-kicker, he made 43-46 PATs and was 5-8 for field goals including a 51 yarder.
Tidewater/Eastern Virginia…
Aaron Taliaferro , J’Courtney Williams and Josh Reamon are all talented players coming out of the Eastern region. Taliaferro and Reamon both play for Gloucester, which is coached by Tommy Reamon.
Taliaferro made 62 tackles including 11 sacks from the defensive end position last season as a junior. He forced four fumbles and recovered three during the year.
“He has that Blackstock flavor to him,” Reamon said. “He’s quick, he’s aggressive and he’s one of the best defensive players I’ve coached. He has great feet and he has a great knack for getting people off of him. He has excellent explosion.”
Taliaferro has three offers – Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech – with Virginia being the clear leader. He camped at UVa last summer.
“There’s no question that Virginia leads,” Reamon said. “He’s considering deciding early, but I don’t see it happening at least until we get through May. He knows UVa offers a lot of good things and it’s very good that Coach London is defensive coordinator.”
Josh Reamon, the nephew of Tommy, is a 5-10, 175-pound cornerback who made eight interceptions last season as a junior. Look for Reamon at the USC Nike camp in April. No offers have been extended yet.
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Christchurch (Christchurch, VA) linebacker prospect J’Courtney Williams has offers from Virginia and Virginia Tech. A very good athlete, he also excels on the basketball court.
“Courtney is a very smart young man who has great speed, athletic ability and who loves sports,” Christchurch head coach Ed Homer said. “He just loves to compete. Sometimes you have a big kid, sometimes you have a strong kid, sometimes you have a fast kid and sometimes you have a smart kid…but Courtney is all of those wrapped into one.”
Virginia may have an early edge now, but do not rule out any schools that come in with offers. And Williams has attended VT’s summer camp over the past two years.
“UVa was in on Courtney very early,” Homer said. “They made an offer two days before our season started. It was very exciting for Courtney. He’s spoken with Coach London a few times and has felt a connection there.
“If he was deciding tomorrow, I think Virginia would be the choice. But I think he may wait to make a decision. I just don’t know right now.”
