A friend of mine, with whom I trade frequent emails about Hokie football, has a question he asks me often this time of year: "Have I ever told you," he asks, "how much I hate recruiting?"

Yep, just a couple of times. For the record, my friend isn't doing any recruiting, he's just following it. And he hates how hard it is to get good, accurate information from the kids as to what they're going to do. It drives him nuts that the region's most highly-coveted football recruits often decommit, waffle about their decision, or just keep it close to the vest with a constant stream of vanilla quotes along the lines of, "I don't have a leader, I'll decide after I take all my visits."

I got another email the other day from a TSL Pass subscriber who made his way to the pay recruiting board for the first time and was surprised to see the same wild mood swings on the new pay board that characterized the old free recruiting board this time of year. "It's like a big soap opera," he complained, implying that this was a bad thing.

"Really?" I thought to myself. "Exactly! That's what makes recruiting so cool!"

National Signing Day is Wednesday, February 5th, just over two weeks from now, and this year's roller-coaster ride is no less ferocious than any other in recent years. At this point in the process, with signing day so close, recruiting news becomes honed to a wickedly fine point, as the number of kids "on the board" shrinks down to a manageable few that even the most dim-witted, detail-lacking person such as myself can keep track of.

A list that was dozens of kids deep has suddenly shrunk to just a handful of pivotal recruits. In the case of Virginia Tech, with 18 commitments in the bag (or 17, depending upon where and how you count Josh Hyman), the list of hot uncommitted kids still roaming free is short. Off the top of my head: Chase Anastasio, Vince Hall, Xavier Adibi, Chris Ellis, Cory Holt, Vince Redd, Rodney Kinlaw, and Michael Hinton.

What makes recruiting great this time of year? Simple: the kids I call decommits, wafflers, and mysteries.

A decommit is a kid who gives a verbal commitment, only to back down and go somewhere else. Okay, so going back on your word isn't a "great" thing to do, so some of you might disagree that decommits help make recruiting great. But you'll have to admit that it's the decommits who become part of recruiting legend and lore, not the kids who commit early and then stick with it.

If you've been following Virginia Tech recruiting the last few years, names like Yubrenal Isabelle, Richard Rodgers, Larry Anderson, Colin Cole, Lionel Bolen, and Patrick Dosh resonate in your brain, even if they didn't go on to become great college players. They were all players who either committed to Tech or were mistakenly reported as Tech commitments, only to sign with other programs.

A 17-year-old or 18-year-old kid is allowed to change his mind. That's no big deal. What is a big deal is the damage a decommit does to your recruiting efforts, especially if it's a late decommit. Coaching staffs often secure verbal commitments, then quit recruiting other players for the position, only to have their commitment back out on them, leaving them with nothing. Dosh is a perfect example. The Hokie coaches thought they were getting two QB's in last year's class -- Dosh and Marcus Vick -- and they only wound up with one.

A decommit like Dosh's is particularly painful. He sounded like he loved Virginia Tech and was born to be a Hokie, only to reverse his field when late interest from Florida and a late VT commitment from Marcus Vick caused him to reconsider and head for Gainesville. Dosh made his decision the night before signing day, leaving the Hokies no time to recruit another QB.

Then there are kids like Richard Rodgers, the Deep Creek (Chesapeake, VA) defensive lineman who wrecked his knee his senior year, verbaled to VT, then got a late offer from Virginia and dropped the Hokies like a hot potato. Hokie fans felt Rodgers, nervous because of his injury, had accepted the VT offer as his bird in the hand, while he waited for his two in the bush (an offer from UVa) to come through.

In the case of Larry Anderson, all he really wanted was an offer from the Miami Hurricanes, and when he got one very, very late in the recruiting process, he waved bye-bye to his VT commitment and headed for Coral Gables. The Hokie coaches no doubt knew what they were up against there, and weren't surprised when Anderson gobbled up the Miami offer like Scooby snarfing up a Scooby snack.

While decommits are kids who verbal to your school but then blindside you by going somewhere else, wafflers are kids who commit, but then keep looking around, without keeping it a secret (admittedly, in the Internet age, keeping it a secret is getting to be impossible).

One classic example of a waffler is Lorne Sam, a QB/ATH from Buford, Georgia last year who verbaled to FSU as a wide receiver but then took a look at the Hokies, because VT was recruiting him as a quarterback. Sam was very open about what he was doing, making him a waffler on his FSU commitment. In the end, Saint Bobby Bowden dangled a chance at trying out for QB -- yeah, right -- in front of Sam, and he stuck with FSU.

Two things: Number one, Lorne Sam was one of the nicest kids I ever interviewed, and number two, he may get that shot at QB after all, with FSU QB's dropping off the roster like flies lately.

The Hokies are dealing with a waffler this year. Miami Central QB Courtney Denson verbaled to VT way back in June, but made no secret of his intention to visit other schools, even on the eve of his commitment. That's the very definition of a "soft commitment," and at least Denson is being up front about it. He has recently tripped to Nebraska, which didn't impress him, but a visit to Auburn last weekend produced conflicting reports as to whether or not Denson was still honoring his VT verbal.

In the wake of his Auburn visit, Denson told recruiting services anything from, "I'm still a VT commitment and won't take any other visits" (TechSideline Pass) to "You can go ahead and list me as not committed to anyone" (AuburnSports.com), with more visits to come (he tripped to Rutgers this past weekend).

Denson puts the Hokie coaches in a precarious position, because he represents a possible second lost QB verbal in two years. That'll put a dent in any team's plans. Good thing the Hokies have two capable young QB's already on the roster in Bryan Randall and Marcus Vick, but if Tech loses Denson, quarterback recruiting becomes even more of a priority next year and beyond.

Another thing that comes sharply into focus this time of year is the in-state recruiting battle between Virginia and Virginia Tech. The two schools might rack up as many as twenty in-state commitments or more between the two of them throughout the months leading up to signing day, but invariably, in late January, it comes down to a few kids -- or maybe even just one -- whose decisions determine which team "takes the state" in recruiting that year.

Typically, as recruiting of a given class matures, most in-state kids are seen as UVa leans or Tech leans, and are mentally chalked up to one side or the other, even before they verbal. It represents a major victory for either school if they sway a kid who has been perceived as a long-time lean to the other school, as Virginia did by getting a verbal commitment from Phoebus' Phillip Brown, considered to be a VT lean until just recently.

Then there are the precious few kids, the "swing recruits," who don't seem to favor either school, and whose decisions weigh heavy in the in-state recruiting wars. Kids like Ahmad Brooks, the one player from last year whom most recruiting observers agreed was responsible for determining which school, Tech or UVa, won the state. The two schools had fought to a virtual standstill in in-state recruiting prior to Brooks' decision, and it was perceived that Brooks' decision was the knockout punch that would win it for the school he chose. He chose Virginia, and you can convincingly argue that UVa won the in-state war. The Hoos got five of the state's top 10 per the Roanoke Times, including Brooks, and VT got just two: Marcus Vick and Jonathan Lewis.

I call kids like Brooks "mysteries." You don't know what school they're going to choose until the very end. This year's mysteries are defensive end Chris Ellis from Bethel High in Hampton and ATH Chase Anastasio from Robinson High in Fairfax.

This isn't to insult Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall, who have refused to name leaders and who say they are wide open. They're ranked #1 and #2 in TSL's top 40 for the state of Virginia. But their decisions aren't VT/UVa decisions, because they have eliminated UVa. They'll either choose VT -- which would be a victory for the Hokies -- or an out of state school, which would be a loss for both UVa and Tech, because it represents a prime in-state kid leaving the border.

When the message board rivalry heats up between Tech and UVa in the coming two weeks, it will be Ellis and Anastasio that the Hoo and Hokie fans talk about, and it will be Ellis and Anastasio that they hold over each other's heads. Ellis has been perceived as a Hokie lean -- off and on -- for a long time, and even Hokie fans think Anastasio is more likely UVa-bound, so there's also opportunities for both the Hokies and Hoos to pull surprise victories over each other with these two recruits.

So watch out for those decommits, keep an eye on those wafflers, and hang on every word spoken by the mysteries. And if you hate it, or it's too much of a soap opera for you, then relax and learn to enjoy it. This is the type of drama you're supposed to embrace, not dread.

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