If casual fans know just one name from this unprecedented Virginia recruiting class, it might be Ahmad Brooks. The C.D. Hylton senior was named the national defensive player of the year by USA Today and was probably the country's best linebacker.

"Up here in our area, everybody's [comparing Brooks to] LaVar Arrington, and of course he's a big, fast, strong linebacker who's very athletic," Hylton coach Bill Brown said. "So that would be a comparison, maybe a future comparison. People say at Penn State that Ahmad is way ahead of where Arrington was when he came in as a freshman, though I don't know if that's propaganda."

Recruiting analysts listed Brooks as an outside linebacker - probably because of his speed - but he has played in the middle since his sophomore year of high school and will begin his UVa career on the inside as well. He missed most of his junior season with a broken ankle but returned to life as the prototypical MLB his senior year. For the second time in his career, he finished with more than 200 tackles.

"You've got great athletes, but seldom are they in high school 6-foot-3, 230 pounds and run the 40 in 4.6, 4.5 times with equipment on," said Brown, who guided Hylton to state titles in Brooks' first two seasons. "He does a lot of things you can't coach, athletically. It makes him different from most high school players in that sense."

He's strong, he's fast, he's fierce. As ESPN.com's Tom Lemming put it, "When he hits you, you stay hit." No wonder schools like Tennessee, Florida State and Virginia Tech wanted him.

"One of the truest indicators, I think, of any recruit - assuming you're not from some little known area -- is what kind of attention are you getting and who's really beating down your door with scholarship offers," said Dave Glenn of the ACC Area Sports Journal. "There were a lot of schools beating down Ahmad Brooks' door. When everybody coast to coast wanted somebody, that's usually a pretty good sign."

Brooks' decision came down to the wire, but he finally decided on Virginia a few days before the signing period opened.

"Coach Groh knows what he's doing," said Brooks, who also carried 64 times for 759 rushing yards as a senior. "He just needs some people to step in and play. They just need some athletes."

That was just one of 26 recruiting commitment capsules in this article.

Marques Hagans
By John Galinsky

Spinner or Schaub? Schaub or Spinner?

At least one close follower of Virginia football thinks the correct answer to the Great Quarterback Question of 2001 was: Neither one.

"When all that crap was going on with the QBs last year, I said, 'Hey, you put Marques Hagans in there, you're not going to have a problem,'" said John Shuman.

Granted, Shuman may be a little biased. Fork Union Military Academy's postgraduate football coach is admittedly "a Marques Hagans fan." But he also is well aware of what Hagans can do on a football field.

And he's not alone. Another of Hagans' former coaches, Mike Smith of Hampton High, is a strong believer that the redshirt freshman should be UVa's quarterback of the present and near future.

"He's going to be a great college quarterback," Smith said. "He's special. Don't get me wrong. I think Schaub is a good quarterback, too, but Marques will be a great one. He does everything so well." ...

Mr. Groh's Wild Ride
Column by Glenn Pappalardo

If college football were an amusement park, I have no doubt that recruiting would be the biggest, fastest, and of course, scariest ride in the whole place. How could it not be? Sure, it probably started off as some mildly squeamish contraption in a remote corner of the park, providing entertainment and a few tame thrills for the small group of loyalists willing to stand in line. But over time, it grew. And grew. Fueled by advances in technology, parity in the sport, and a growing interest by the common man in the gridiron exploits of young men not yet eligible to drive automobiles (AKA "hype"), it grew, to the present day, where throngs gather to brave its incredible heights and risk its unpredictable lows.

The fans of the premier programs that routinely dominate the sport are all too familiar with this ride. They endure it every offseason, taking their place in line as soon as the final seconds of their bowl games tick off. They read the columns of recruiting gurus, pour over Top 25, 50 and 100 lists for every position and role imaginable, and listen to talk radio shows touting the stars of the coming class. During the season, while spending Saturdays faithfully watching their own teams, they read up in the papers on the performances the night before of the hottest prospects. Some even attend the high school games in person. Eventually, initial favorites are named by the players. And all the while, the ride slowly climbs upward.

As the season wanes and the weather turns cold, the race heats up. The high school seniors take their visits to the chosen few schools fortunate enough to hold their interest, and every detail, real and imagined, of these trips is dispersed via cyberspace. "Sources" close to the programs or the players leak supposed inside information on "leanings" and preferences. And still the ride climbs upward. And then, just as Super Bowl Sunday passes, leaving us full of buffalo wings, chips, dip and commercials, the ride reaches the top of that hill, and the real fun begins. ...

Keenan Carter
By Jim Reedy

Keenan Carter wasn't the first member of Al Groh's first full recruiting class, but he was the first blue chipper, a 6-foot-3, 305-pound nose tackle brought in to anchor the defensive line of Groh's 3-4 defense.

"This young behemoth is big enough to cause a total eclipse of the sun and has the athletic ability to cause a total breakdown in a team's offensive schemes," ESPN.com recruiting analyst Tom Lemming gushed.

Ben Stutler, Carter's coach at Potomac High in Dumfries, Va., also praised Carter's combination of size and athleticism. Rivals ranked Carter 30th among defensive tackles and rated him four stars.

"He can do a number of things," Stutler said. "He can rush the passer because of his quickness and athletic ability. You're not going to find too many people with that size and that stature that can run and move like he can, especially moving laterally up and down the scrimmage versus the run. At the same time, he's quick enough to get by people one on one and get up field and rush the passer." ...

There's an interview with Carter at the end of this article.

Cavalier Chronicles
By Coy Barefoot

The Truth Behind Traditions:
The Good Old Song and Wah-Hoo-Wah

Sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, the University of Virginia school song dates to 1893. Prior to that time most of the songs and cheers at UVa athletic events had been borrowed from northern colleges. The first stanza of the Good Old Song was created jointly by a group of students at Union Station welcoming the new football team back from an away game. Lyrics to the second and third stanzas were later penned by Edward Craighill, Jr. of Lynchburg.

The cry of "Wah-hoo-wah"-from which we get the moniker Wahoos and the abbreviated Hoos-was already popular among students by 1893, so it was incorporated into the lyrics of the song. The phrase Wah-hoo-wah may have been borrowed from a similar cheer at Dartmouth, though local legend tells a different story. ...

Cavalier Chronicles is a monthly feature in the Sabre Newsletter.

Elton Brown
By Jeremy Williams

It's the spring semester of your senior year in high school. You already know which college you're heading to. Days are filled with activities galore. Then there is that question that confronts every 18-year-old in his last days of high school. What are you going to do with the majority of your free time? Play basketball all day? No doubt. Hang out with your friends? All semester. Go party on the weekends? That sounds like a good idea. Study all day? You must be kidding, right?

That is, of course, unless your name is Elton Brown.

Brown, who is a 6'9", 260 pound forward for the Virginia Cavaliers, studied almost every day of his last semester in high school in order to receive a qualifying score on the SAT's, so he could attend the University of Virginia. Every day after school was not spent in the gym like other players on his Warwick high school team. While his teammates worked on free throw shooting and a zone defense, Elton spent his time working on analogies and reading comprehension.

While it doesn't seem like the most exciting way to spend the close of your high school days, it paid off for Brown as he improved his grades and reached the qualifying score to attend Virginia and do something that he had worked his entire high school career for: play college basketball.

"I was so excited when I found out that I had qualified," Brown said. "It was the day I had waited my whole life for. There was nothing more exciting than finding out that I would be going to play basketball at one of the finest athletic and academic schools in the country." ...

The Stretch Run
Column by Brett Wood

According to the plan, the stretch run through the conference schedule was when the Cavs were supposed to be positioning themselves for a favorable NCAA tournament seeding. Instead, the Hoos are hanging on to an invitation to the Big Dance by their fingernails, and their grip is slipping. As experienced military tacticians are fond of saying: no plan survives first contact with the enemy. ...

Keith Jenifer
By Chris Horne

Virginia's fabulous freshmen have arguably played as well if not better than any other freshman class in the country. There are certainly no other freshman classes that have meant more to a team. While all of the freshmen are playing at surprisingly high levels this season, perhaps no other freshman has been counted upon to assume a larger role for the Cavaliers than Baltimore, Md, native Keith Jenifer.

And his value was evident before the season even started.

The news surfaced in October of 2001 - Majestic Mapp, the former McDonald's All-American point guard from Bronx, NY, would be lost for a second straight season due to a torn ACL in his right knee. The Cavaliers had lost their point guard and were faced with the prospect of moving Roger Mason, Jr, one of the nation's rising shooting guards, to point guard.

While no one doubted the ability of Mason to run the point, many realized the Cavaliers would need someone else to help replace the loss of Mapp. Virginia then looked to its incoming freshmen for help, and the spotlight was squarely on Jenifer, as he was the lone true point guard in this year's class.

"When I heard that Majestic was going to be out, I figured that I probably would have to progress as soon as possible because Roger is really a natural two-guard," said Jenifer. "I had to progress very quickly." ...