Stefan Cooper of the Maryville (Tenn.) Daily Times reports that the hometown Scots are hoping for continued improvement — both on the field and in the Athletic Center — after a 5-4 season in 2004.

The Scots join the USA South Athletic Conference for football this season after playing a slew of close games as an independent in 2004. Maryville had three overtime games and four more decided by a field goal or less last season.

This is a nice turnaround for a program that, not too long ago, was celebrating its first home win in a couple years.

Ah, to be a high school starting quarterback.

To receive admiring glances from your school mates as you roam the hallways of a peer pressure cooker. To take the helm of your team and lead them to glory in weekend battles with cross town rivals. To bask in the longing gazes of cheerleaders and precocious underclasswomen whose heart you can send a flutter with a single smile.

At least that’s what I always imagined it was like.

You know, when I was daydreaming in Spanish class instead of paying rapt attention to yet another round of the “Como-te-llamas-me-llamo-Gordon” drill.

Despite these glory days — real or imagined — the transition to college can be particularly difficult for incoming quarterbacks. Along with getting acclimated to new offensive sets, unfamiliar teammates and a higher level of play, many first year QBs face the reality that, previous honors notwithstanding, they’re unlikely to see significant playing time this fall.

But an unknown arm in 2005 may be “the man” in 2006 and beyond. So we’re letting the incoming quarterback hopefuls take a few snaps for this edition of the Recruiting Recap.

Herron Elects to Join the Presidents

A good feature in The (Charleston, W. VA) State Journal tells the story of Bobby Herron who will attend Washington & Jefferson next fall. The Wheeling Central Catholic High School quarterback joins an offense with lots of weapons returning, including quarterback Chris Edwards who tossed 38 touchdowns last year.

Herron enters college with realistic expectations, telling the Journal, “[W]ith a guy like Chris Edwards coming back, I know that the No. 2 slot is what I’m shooting for this year. Then next year, we’ll see.”

Herron’s story is also a great example of why many talented players decide to play football at the Division III level.

W&J is a smaller school relatively close to home offering Herron a quality education and a chance to play the game he loves. Herron emphasizes that his studies will come first. “I already know that I’m not going to play pro ball for a living, and I know that I’m going to have to turn pro in something. College is where I’ll get the education for the future.”

Well said, Mr. President.

Wartburg Bound

The (Waterloo, Iowa) Courier reports that another talented high school quarterback is headed to a perennial playoff contender. Denver (Iowa) HS quarterback Jake Kuennen will bring his strong arm to Waverly where Wartburg comes off yet another IIAC title.

Like W&J, Wartburg has an incumbent starter returning at quarterback in senior-to-be Reed Hoskins. Despite a relatively weak ratio of 14 touchdowns to 15 interceptions, Hoskins took a large majority of the snaps last year with back-up QB Greg Koenen only throwing three passes.

MIT be a good Fit

Valley Central (N.Y.) HS alum Stephen Toth apparently likes a challenge. So the valedictorian/quarterback plans to play baseball and football at MIT…after he starts classes in pursuit of his chemical engineering degree…after he joins the college’s ROTC program.

Toth told the Middletown (N.Y.) Times-Herald that he was particularly struck by a Mark Twain quote on an MIT brochure — “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.”

Class work at MIT plus football plus ROTC plus the rest of college life? Sounds like a challenge.

In other recruiting news that crossed our virtual desk:

– Pontiac (Ill.) HS grad Christopher Green will play at Augustana

– Charleston (Ill.) HS WR/DB Jason Murphy heads to Illinois College

– Lyndhurst (N.J.) HS quarterback Brian Kapp will attend Montclair State

– Carmi-White County (Ind.) HS product Eric Trout will enroll at North Central

– Wyoming Valley West (Pa.) HS rusher Ryan Kraynack will suit up for Union

– Green Bay East (Wis.) HS lineman Matt Klug heads to UW-Platteville

– Bexley (Ohio) HS teammates Matt Ellinger and David Gitlitz will attend W&J

Remember that there are plenty more recruits listed here, including new links to full recruiting classes for Delaware Valley, Franklin & Marshall and Minnesota-Morris.

And you can share recruiting news using the comments feature below, but please provide a URL to verify the story.

Here at the Recruiting Recap we like the easy ones.

Easy like Sunday morning. Easy like dehydrated macaroni n’ cheese. Easy like, well, you get the idea.

So we want to thank some schools who’ve made our job easier by providing lists of their recruits.

We’ve seen releases from Centre and Hampden-Sydney in the South region.

Plus we noticed the recruiting class for the Tigers’ ODAC rival Bridgewater (VA) is posted on Eagles fan site Bridgewaterfootball.com. In fact, you could add that release to this tentative roster for a complete glimpse (if there is such a thing) of their potential lineup.

The Pittsburgh Tribute Review listed a handful of recruits who will join new head coach Jeff Hand at Westminster (Pa.). OregonLive.com is tracking local kids’ college plans, including a healthy dose headed to Linfield.

That’s not to say that everyone on these lists will play the position mentioned or even play at all since Division III schools can’t tie financial aid to athletic participation. And there will probably be other first year players who are not on these lists but will play at these schools next season. But the lists give fans get a better flavor for an incoming class.

So if you’re an SID or coach who is in the know about your school’s recruiting class and you want to share, please feel free to do so by emailing us at news@d3football.com. Or you can follow the lead of Concordia (Wis.) which posted its recruiting class as a comment on the last recap.

Isn’t that Special?

What do you get when you cross Reggie Roby with Reggie White?

The answer is Steve Jones, a 6-5, 300-pound Annapolis (Md.) HS grad headed to Wesley. Jones received regional punting honors in his first season at the position while also playing on both sides of the line.

The Manteca (Calif.) Bulletin highlighted another special teams recruit, Brandon Gresham who will take his kicking talents to Menlo. The Ceres High School punter and kicker heads to Atherton where he wants to study law enforcement. “I want to become a cop like my dad,” Gresham told the Bulletin.

Though Gresham likely doesn’t know it, he has a kindred spirit in Illinois.

The Morris (Ill.) Daily Herald reports that Harvey VanCleave III plans to attend Aurora as his grandfather and father did before him. Harvey the Third and his father played the same position (defensive tackle) wearing the same number (72) for the same coach (Dan Darlington) at Morris High School.

The father-son comparisons don’t stop there as the youngest VanCleave hopes to follow his dad’s professional footsteps by entering law enforcement. “I want to model my life after my dad. I’d like to be exactly like him,” he told the Herald.

With Father’s Day in less than 10 days, that testimony is a very nice gift from one VanCleave to another.

In other recruiting news:

—Augustana has landed Eric Smith from Flanagan (Ill.) HS, Dan Rosenkrans from Pecatonica (Ill.) HS and Matt Todd from Lena-Winslow (Ill.) HS.

–Notre Dame (N.Y.) HS has three soon-to-be alums headed to Division III schools: Chris Harrison to Hartwick, Luke Burris to St. Lawrence and Jesse Scott to Wheaton.

— Lawrence (N.J.) HS does Notre Dame one better by sending four guys to D3 colleges: Neal Amato to Gettysburg, Cameron Barker to Montclair State, Adam Oliszewski to New Jersey and Mark Lenarski to Rowan.

— Mark Kapraun goes from Harvard (Ill.) HS to Loras while teammate Raul Meza goes to Rockford.

— Perry Welch of Eastland-Pearl City (Ill.) HS will attend North Central while his high school teammate Travis Calzavara will become a college rival at Illinois Wesleyan.

Special thanks to NJAC guru and D3football.com columnist Tom Wilson for sharing the NJAC news with us. We don’t often hear much recruiting news from that conference so we value the input. You can get more NJAC tidbits from Tom’s blog here.

If you’ve got recruiting news, feel free to share but please include the newspaper URL so we can verify the story.