Dear Readers:

Every year in recruiting, the verbal commitments come in, and fans start to drool over the prospects that have committed to their school. They talk about what players like Montavis Pitts and Patrick Dosh will be able to do when they suit up in future years.

And those who have been through this many times before and are aware that verbal "commitments" can reneg and sign with another school always say the same thing: "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

Signing Day 2002 has come and gone, and 20 chickens have hatched with Virginia Tech jerseys on. They're the players who comprise the 2002 football recruiting class for the Hokies, 17 high schoolers and 3 prep school and junior college players.

Two of them -- Dosh and Pitts -- did not hatch. Or rather, they hatched with Florida and Auburn jerseys on, respectively, and they were summarily booted out of the Hokie nest. It's NCAA rules, you know.

But we're not here to talk about them. We're here to talk about the players who belong to the Hokies. We have gathered together this month to break down the 2002 class, assign grades, rank the players, and generally talk about recruiting until the subject is worn out.

Sure, we'll touch on some players the Hokies didn't land, because there are some interesting stories surrounding them as well, and what went down with guys like Ahmad Brooks and Justin London -- who did not sign with the Hokies -- is as much a part of the rich recruiting landscape as the stories of guys who did, like Marcus Vick, Jonathan Lewis, and Mike Imoh.

In addition to ranking and grading, we'll tell some stories about what went on behind the scenes in the hectic weeks and months leading up to signing day.

This issue isn't all about recruiting, though. We've also got a profile of Kevin McCadam, who put in a sterling performance during the 2001 season at the Rover position for Virginia Tech. And we've got an article from a wheezing, coughing geezer named Jim Alderson, as he reflects on the first fifty years of his life -- his Hokie football life, at least, as if there's any difference between life and Hokie football.

Jim originally submitted his column as a free feature for TSL Columnists, but it was good enough to earn a spot in this month's TSLX, and long enough to justify paying him his customary $5 for it.

Lastly, we'll give you the lowdown on web site traffic during Recruiting 2002, because we know many of you are fascinated by and interested in the web site hit statistics.

It all adds up to what we think is one of our best TSLX issues ever, and we're pretty sure you'll agree, once you've read it.

Enjoy issue #16.

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