ROCKVILLE, Md.--If you draw a line from New York, New Jersey, Maryland, D.C., Baltimore to Tidewater, Virginia, there are probably 25 major middle linebackers who will be signed by NCAA Division I-A football programs on Feb. 7. Pat Lazear will likely top the list.

WVU, Maryland, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and LSU have already offered. Ohio State's Jim Tressel visited Tuesday, along with Mountaineer head Coach Rich Rodriguez and assistant Bill Stewart. Florida is due in next week.

Lazear is due to graduate from Bethesda Walt Whitman at the end of the fall term. By the looks of him, he could get on the field somewhere on Sept. 2 when the Mountaineers and Marshall square off in the Baxter Bowl.

Pat, whose family and girlfriend hail from the Wellsburg-Follansbee area (where his girlfriend still resides), is a scary 6-foot-1, 235 pounder who can seemingly push 195 pounds off his chest all day.

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