Running back from King's Fork commits to Hokies

The Roanoke Times
© July 15, 2009

By Doug Doughty

Dominique Patterson, a 6-foot-1-inch, 210-pound running back from King's Fork High School in Suffolk, has committed to Virginia Tech.

Patterson attended the Hokies' one-day camp on Saturday. He said Tuesday that East Carolina and Marshall were in his final three.

Patterson suffered a broken left wrist in the first game of the 2009 season and was limited to defense after that, collecting 60 tackles and eight sacks.

He ran 40 yards in 4.48 seconds Saturday at Tech.

"I was confident that I would earn a scholarship once I got up there," Patterson said. "I talked to coach (Curt) Newsome and all he told me was, 'Just run fast.' "

Patterson's coach at King's Fork is Joe Jones, who played tight end at Tech.

"He said he wanted to keep his emotions inside of him," Patterson said. "He said the decision was up to me and he didn't want it to seem like he influenced me.

"That was before I committed. When I called him after I committed (Monday) night, he said he was glad and that I had done the right thing."

Jones said he thought Patterson might have been "under the radar" as a prospect because of the injury. He only carried the ball in one game.

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al groh must go

Submitted by overlord_644 on Mon, 07/20/2009 at 1:22 am.

Is it not apparent that the "HOOS" are in need of "HELP"? UVA has ONE victory over VT in the last 10 tries (Schaub and Miller ’03)... Not going to happen this year either. Groh is a terrible head coach and has a bad attitude for no reason; he hasn't won anything. At least Coach Beamer has credibility and respect around the country... I wonder if Coach Welsh is interested in returning soon.