Ex-Hokie bust Whitaker salvaging potential from rock-bottom

Every program has its share of highly touted busts, some of which you could see coming (hello, Willie Williams), some of which you couldn't. Certainly no one at Virginia Tech back in 2005 could have forecast the depths of the eventual descent by hyped quarterback signee Ike Whitaker, who not only fell far short of expectations as the next in a growing line of athletic Hokie QBs -- by his own account in an interview with coach Frank Beamer's Web site, Whitaker showed up to meetings and practices drunk, and eventually stopped showing up. His scholarship was pulled in 2008 after three unproductive seasons. Still living in Blacksburg but with "nothing going on in my life" last fall, Whitaker said he drank every day and was forced to steal what food he could. "Alcoholism had completely taken over," to the point that he decided on suicide, right after a final trip to Tech's football offices to bid farewell to the Hokies' director of football operations...