Maryland was a school Marcus Vick approached with a wait-and-see attitude after a fun visit to the Terps camp this summer. But now Michael Vick's kid brother, a top QB prospect, has crossed Ralph Friedgen's upstart program from his final four. The speedy 6'0", 180-pounder, whom Warwick (Va.) HS coach Tommy Reamon calls "the most intelligent and savvy QB he's ever coached" (even more developed than proteges Aaron Brooks and Marcus' older bro), will visit Tennessee, Miami, Virginia and Virginia Tech, but Vick says he won't make a decision till February.

This fall, despite playing with a gimpy ankle, Lil' Vick still passed for 18 TDs and ran for 16 more.

·Nebraska continued its success with recruiting Polynesians. The Huskers, who have five Samoans on their squad including all-American LG Toniu Fonoti, got a commitment from Haloti Ngata, a 6'3", 305-pound DT from Utah. Ngata (pronounced "nah-ta") is of Tongan descent and is considered one of the nation's top five defensive line recruits.

·Word out of Illinois is that former Iowa QB Jon Beutjer, a heady 6'5", 200-pounder with enough athleticism to have also played on the Hawkeyes' hoops team, is the front-runner to replace Kurt Kittner next season. Beutjer, who completed 77-of-125 for 841 yards and six touchdowns in 2000 for Iowa, has the edge over California dude Matt Dlugolecki, another strong-armed 6'5" QB. Some spies like Beutjer's command of the offense, but don't count the SoCal kid out. Three years ago, Dlugolecki showed enough skills that his high school coach at Santa Margarita moved his starting QB, a senior, over to wideout to make room for him. That QB-turned-receiver was Florida State's redshirt freshman star Chris Rix.

Bruce Feldman covers college football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at bruce.feldman@espnmag.com.