www.roanoke.com

Thirty-six were redshirted.

One had his scholarship revoked after he was caught selling pot.

One failed to meet NCAA eligibility requirements and lost his scholarship.

A handful opted for another year of prep school before heading off to college.

All in all, the vast majority of Virginia's top 50 high school football recruits in the class of 2008 finished the year with little or nothing to write home about. But that's not all that uncommon, especially all the redshirting.

You can check out the fates of all of the state's top 50 recruits -- as rated by Roanoke Times sports writer Doug Doughty -- in our updated database in the DataSphere. Sports staffer Brad Foster tracked down the latest on each player. There's also a database of Doughty's top 100 for this year, as well as the latest on the recruiting classes of UVa and Virginia Tech.

Some players in the class of '08 did have something to write home about, you'll see.

Dyrell Roberts, a wide receiver from Smithfield, played in all 14 games at Virginia Tech this year, and started five. He caught 17 passes for 227 yards, among other highlights.

Stephen Meadows, out of James Monroe in Fredericksburg, played in five games and started one for Youngstown State. He recorded a total of five tackles and 1/2 sack.

That's just a taste. I don't want to give it all away.

New in the DataSphere, a small database of the top high school football recruits of the class of 2009 as selected by Roanoke Times sports writer Doug Doughty. In addition to the players' names and high schools, you get their height, weight and position. Plus, your results are mapped.

And it was the map that got my attention:

Each blue marker represents a school attended by one of the top recruits. It's not all that surprising that most of the blue is in the populous eastern part of the state, especially Tidewater, the Richmond area and Northern Virginia.

But look at the Roanoke Valley.

But for that one marker in Vinton for Tyler Snow of William Byrd High School, there would be a gaping hole around Roanoke a hundred miles across.

What's the story here? It's not that no players of note have come from the area ever. There's the Barber twins out of Cave Spring, of course. Lee Suggs out of William Fleming. More recently, Nick Schmidt punted for Virginia Tech and opted out of what seemed to be automatic work as a punter in the NFL. There are others, too, I'm sure, though they aren't coming to mind as I write this.

But the pattern seems obvious. Last year's map looked about like this one. There are prospects coming out of the less populous western half of the state, and yet they consistently don't come from the biggest population center in the region -- the Roanoke Valley.

I could suppose that part of the problem may be a lack of development at an early age. Roanoke City Schools dumped middle-school football years ago. That can't help, at least as far as Roanoke schools go.

But only addresses part of the question.

So how about some input here. I'm not sportswriter, or sports analyst, so maybe my premise is wrong. If it is, straighten me out. But if I'm on the mark, what's your theory about what's going on?

Virginia Tech's loss to East Carolina Saturday in Charlotte wasn't a surprise just because Tech was a perennial power ranked #17 going up against a smaller, unranked program from a mid-size conference.

Search through Tech's record under Coach Frank Beamer (The Datasphere's Beamer File), and you find the loss is exceptional in a number of ways.

-- Tech has played seven games in the month of August under Beamer, and lost only one, in 2004, to USC -- ironically the same team that bludgeoned UVa in its opener Saturday. (The 2000 season opener against Georgia Tech was cancelled mid-game due to lightning.)

-- Tech is 15-5 in season openers under Beamer. It's last loss was that same USC game in 2004. For the next opening game loss, you have to go all the way back to 1995.

-- Tech is 9-4 against ECU. For the last loss to ECU, go all the way back to a game in 1992.

UVa's 52-7 shellacking Saturday was less surprising, and not only because they were taking on a visiting USC team that came with a #3 ranking. Here's what The Groh Profile shows:

-- UVa is 1-4 in August since 2001, when Al Groh took over the head coaching job.

-- The Cavs are just 3-5 in season openers under Groh.

-- It was the Cavaliers first game against USC or any PAC 10 opponent, but their third game against a top 5 opponent during Groh's tenure. The were 1-1 before Saturday, including a 2005 upset of #4 Florida State.

One of the first databases we featured in the DataSphere when we launched the site in October was Frank Beamer's entire record as head football coach at Virginia Tech. It's still there, and up to date for the new season that kicks off this weekend.

Now, Frank has company from his cross-state rival.

We now have Al Groh's entire record as head football coach at the University of Virginia as a searchable online database.

And just like in Beamer's, you can be your own analyst and see how the Cavaliers have performed under Groh in a given season, against a certain opponent, a certain conference, against ranked teams. Even see how the do on a certain day of the week, or in a certain month. Or, for home games, even see how weather affects UVa.

College football kicks off in just a couple of weeks, and just in time we've updated and upgraded our online Virginia Tech and UVa sports databases.

Check out the Beamer File, a searchable database of every game the Hokies have played under Coach Frank Beamer since his arrival in 1987. Search by season, opponent, opponent's conference, opponent's rank, even the TV station that televised the games. Get the weather almanac data for home games, too.

Did you know, for example, that while the Hokies are 8-4 under Beamer against their first opponent, East Carolina, they've won the last 6 match-ups?

The Hokies are also undefeated under Beamer in games played in August -- with one game against Georgia Tech unfinished due to lightning.

Also, Sports Writer Doug Doughty continues to keep us up to date with all the latest commitments to both the Tech and UVa programs, and you can search all those commitments from 2008 to the present now in the DataSphere.

This year's biggest boy? How about 6'7", 265-pound Brent Urban out of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, a defensive end headed to UVa next fall? Yikes.

Someone you know been boasting about the bulk of their latest bass? Does their story about landing a crappie sound like a load of, um, garbage?

Our database of nearly 12,000 Virginia freshwater citation fish won't tell you about the ones that got away, but you can track trophy catches right down to the pound, ounce and inch.

We just updated the database with about 5,500 fish from 2007, so there's two years worth of trophies in there in 23 species, plus the names of the anglers who caught them and where each was landed.

And don't think this is inside stuff just for serious fisherman. You won't find me hanging around the baitshop, but I gotta say, when I first saw this database, the first thing I did was try to figure out, what's the biggest darn fish in there? I mean, who isn't interested in the biggest anything?

The answer, by the way, is a 95 pound, 11 ounce, 54-inch blue catfish landed by Archie Gold in 2006 in the James River. That's a state record.

But there are other curiosities. Like where they are caught. Check out the related graphic of where the most trophy fish were caught in 2007. Here's a tease: The top producers aren't all big rivers and lakes. Think of that cliche about fish in a barrel. Fish in a farm?

And if you want an expert's view of the data, read Roanoke Times Outdoors Writer Mark Taylor's take on it.

Lee Suggs, if you don't know, was a top flight running back at William Fleming High School in Roanoke, then at Virginia Tech, and finally in the NFL, albeit briefly. He's also one of the last football players of note to come out of the Roanoke Valley.

Check out the map of The Roanoke Times' sports staff's picks for the top 50 high school football prospects in the state, class of 2008. Naturally, there are more good players out of the heavily populated eastern half of the state. But it's hard to overlook the glaringly vacant space in and around Roanoke.

From where I sit, there nearest prospects are a good drive away, in Richlands, Bristol and Lynchburg. Meanwhile, it seems you can't swing a dead cat in Tidewater without hitting a player bound for a top college program.

It's not like you pass them on the street every day, so where do these monsters who play football at Virginia Tech and UVa come from? And who's coming to play next year?

Turns out Roanoke Times sports writer Doug Doughty keeps up with this stuff, and thanks to him we now have those answers in the DataSphere.

You can search a small database of recruits by both the Hokies and the Cavaliers major football programs, and see the name, position, school, hometown, height and weight of the 28 players committed to Tech and 14 committed to UVa for 2008 (plus one for 2009 at Tech.)

You can see the same data displayed on an interactive map, too. Those who pay close attention to college recruiting know that Tech more or less owns Virginia. Look at the map and that fact leaps at you in burgundy and burnt orange. The Wahoos find their players in more far flung places, its plain to see.

What other patterns do you see, sports fans?