CB Brown down to three

The top cornerback in Virginia and one of the nation's best has helped lead his team into the state semi-finals. Phillip Brown has also narrowed his list to three, eliminating one of the top contenders.

"My final three are Virginia Tech, NC State and Virginia," said the 5-foot-11, 185-pound cornerback. "Those three are the schools I'm looking at the hardest right now. I had Tennessee in my list but not really anymore.

"I had my phone number changed and every other schools spent the time and energy searching out my new number except Tennessee. All they had to do was contact my school or a teammate or something, but I haven't heard from them. It makes me think they aren't that serious about recruiting me."

Brown has scheduled three visits so far and might take more.

"I'm going to be visiting NC State (Jan. 3), Virginia (Jan.17) and Virginia Tech (Jan. 24). I got a chance to watch the Virginia Tech game against Virginia on television and it was a good game. I wasn't going for either one," he laughed. "I was mostly looking for individual matchups. I wanted to see Suggs do well and I wanted McMullen to do well. I was just enjoying the game."

Hampton (Va.) Phoebus has been led to the state semifinals by Brown and teammate Xavier Adibi. On the season Brown picked off five passes at corner, returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and took four punts back.

"I should have had five punt returns for touchdowns but they called one back so I only got four. I think I had 16 touchdowns on the year. Three were receiving, six were on returns, and seven were rushing."

How big of an impact will possible playing time have on Brown's final decision?

"I want to see the field early on," said Brown. "I'll help on special teams and I would like to play at corner. All the schools are recruiting me at corner and I want to see at least like 20 plays per game just to get my feet wet. That's important just so I'll know I'm not going to have to wait until my junior year or something to play."