Robert Morris football coach Joe Walton has put the finishing touches on this fall's recruiting class, hoping another Hank Fraley will emerge among the 33 players who will come to camp.

Walton said none of the incoming players will receive a full athletic scholarship, but the equivalency of 10 scholarships has been offered in addition to financial aid based on need.

"When you go from high school to college you have to get a lot better ... some of these kids will hit the wall and can't compete against superior players. A lot of it is luck," Walton said of the recruiting process. "The big schools want a finished product right now. We're looking for potential."

As a Division I-AA school, Robert Morris often gets players who slip through the recruiting cracks.

"The first thing we ask recruits is, 'Have you played any basketball?' " Walton said. "We're looking for athletes. Our job is to turn them into football players."

Fraley, who came to Robert Morris in 1996 as a 6-foot-1, 250-pound offensive lineman, grew to 6-3, 305 as a senior and has spent the past seven years with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns.

"He looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy when we recruited him," Walton said of Fraley. "We saw a good athlete for a kid his size. He could dunk a basketball. He was really coordinated. A lot of coaches don't look at things like this, but his dad's a big man so we figured he was going to grow some. He was a man when he left."

Walton said the newcomers usually spend a rough first week at camp trying to learn the system.

"Their minds are spinning," he said. "Once they stop thinking and start reacting is when you can see what kind of football player you've got. I'd like to see two or three start this season."

The incoming freshmen will have an opportunity to make an immediate impact because the Colonials return just 11 starters (counting both kickers) from a 7-4 team.

"I'll play the best players," Walton said. "I don't care what year they are."

Running back Brian Harden and cornerback Jacky Candy, the only players who started as freshmen this past season, left school to return home to Florida. Harden started every game and led the Colonials with 399 yards rushing.

Raphael Johnson, who couldn't play this past season as a freshman because of Prop 48, has an opportunity to start at running back.

Walton said the Colonials have expanded their recruiting base the past several years because "The quality of high school football in Western Pennsylvania is not as good as it used to be. There still are some good ones here, but not as many."

Of the 33 incoming players, 12 are from WPIAL schools, seven from Ohio and four from Florida.

"If you recruit 30, you hope 15 can play and you're lucky if 10 will ever start a game," Walton said. "We think we know how they look when we recruit them, but we really don't because high school tapes really are poor quality. Speed is the No. 1 hardest thing to judge on tape. You do the best you can, then you do what all coaches do -- you hope."

RMU fifth in NEC
Robert Morris finished fifth in the 2006-07 Northeast Conference Commissioner's Cup awarded to the overall success of a school's athletic program. The Colonials were second in the men's standings and sixth in the women's standings in the sports sponsored by the NEC. Monmouth won its fourth consecutive cup and Saint Francis, Pa., was third.

W&J, Westminster lead PAC
The Washington & Jefferson men and the Westminster women finished first in the Presidents' Athletic Conference All-Sports Trophies for 2006-07. The W&J men won championships in football, baseball and golf; the Westminster women won in soccer and swimming and diving.

Last Week Revisited
Highlights from individual and team performances in district colleges last week:

Tom Tait, who founded the Penn State men's and women's volleyball programs, was honored as an All-Time Great Coach in the Pioneer Division by USA Volleyball. The women began as a club program in 1974 and became a varsity sport in '76 along with men's volleyball.

Thiel will reinstate men's and women's golf this fall after a year's hiatus.

Washington & Jefferson senior pitcher/first baseman Sam Mann, the PAC Player of the Year, was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Division III All-American team as a utility player. He led the Presidents with 35 RBIs and tied with four home runs. He also had an 8-4 record with a 1.99 earned run average.

Carnegie Mellon senior Davey Quinn finished second in the 1,500-meter with a time of 3:54.49 at the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships in Oshkosh, Wis.

Thiel sophomore Dorran Coley was second in the 110-meter high hurdles with a time of 14.83 for the highest individual finish in school history in the track championships.