The University of Richmond’s football program yesterday received its 12th oral commitment from a member of the Class of 2010. Varina High’s Jerel Harrison, a wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner, is the fifth Richmond-area prospect to commit to the Spiders. Also committed to UR are Highland Springs DB DeShawn Holmes, Henrico DB DreQuan Hoskey, Collegiate QB Jake McGee and Highland Springs DT Rashad Winston.

ROTC units from James Madison University and Virginia Military Institute will begin a 61-mile march today with the game ball for Saturday’s football game. The JMU Duke Battalion and VMI’s Marshall-New Market Battalion will march the ball from Lexington to Harrisonburg as a tribute to the sacrifice of those serving in the armed forces.

The University of Richmond’s football program yesterday received its 12th oral commitment from a member of the Class of 2010. Varina High’s Jerel Harrison, a wide receiver/defensive back/kick returner, is the fifth Richmond-area prospect to commit to the Spiders. Also committed to UR are Highland Springs DB DeShawn Holmes, Henrico DB DreQuan Hoskey, Collegiate QB Jake McGee and Highland Springs DT Rashad Winston.

Metro Business asked Dean Croushore, chairman of the economics department at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business, about what happened to the economy a year ago, where the economy is now and what will it look like in the near future: “The U.S. economy entered into a recession in December 2007, and the recession got a lot worse last fall when the financial crisis hit.

Time to get out the flak jacket, the Charlottesville Venture Group said of its signature angel investor event, Live Fire!, coming to Richmond on Wednesday. For 15 minutes each, in front of a live audience, five regional companies will stand at the podium with PowerPoint presentations and try to get money from a panel of angel investors to help fund their ventures.

Even before he was laid off, Jerry Dawson was considering a new career. An industrial engineer for Qimonda, he was in one of those “midlife what-do-I-want-to-do-when-I-grow-up” self-assessments when he signed up for a landscaping design certificate program at the University of Richmond last September.

Some of the top Football Championship Series competition in the country happens in the CAA, and that’s both on and off the field. A mini arms race of facilities and stadiums is under way and will only be fueled when two new teams join the conference in the next two years. Meanwhile, the play on the field is as hot as ever. Eight of the schools in this year’s preseason top 25 play in the CAA, comprising nearly one-third of the list—and Delaware just missed the cut.

The University of Richmond’s football schedule seems to set up the Spiders for a successful start. Four of the first six games are on the road. The past two years, UR went 12-3 as visitors against Football Championship Subdivision opposition. The Spiders open Saturday night at Duke, then visit Colonial Athletic Association rival Delaware.

Virginia Commonwealth University has received $10 million in grants intended to improve math instruction in middle schools and rural elementary schools. The National Science Foundation funding over five years will support initiatives by researchers in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. Their goal will be to prepare teachers to serve as mathematics specialists who in turn coach other teachers.

Six years ago, the University of Richmond’s Harnett Museum of Art acquired four paintings by New York artist Stanley Boxer in a gift-purchase arrangement negotiated by the university. “I knew about Boxer, but I never met him,“ says Harnett director Richard Waller. “When we acquired the paintings, I said, ‘Oh, this is so wonderful!‘“ Three years later, Boxer’s widow, artist Joyce Weinstein, got in touch with Waller. Of the more than 7,000 paintings, sculptures and drawings Boxer created before he died in 2000, Weinstein told Waller, about 700 works remained in his estate.

Last year the University of Richmond won the national title in the Football Championship Subdivision. The Spiders open this season ranked No. 2 among their peers. James Madison and William and Mary also enjoy strong rankings in the FCS. The AP poll pegs Virginia Tech at No. 7. The Hokies play their first game in Atlanta against the Crimson Tide of Alabama, one of the four or five most storied teams in college football. The rooting interests of the Hokie Mom in this office are apparent. The Editorial staff includes two graduates of the University of Virginia. Office morale is perhaps best preserved by omitting the Cavaliers from a discussion of the pigskin slate for 2009.

The 60-plus events set for the 2009-2010 season of the Modlin Center for the Arts is impressive enough—especially with Tim Robbins making an appearance. But this season, which begins Sept. 8, a new venue is also adding to the Modlin cachet.

Maybe he will be a college quarterback. Maybe he will play some other position. But Collegiate’s Jake McGee will be doing it at the University of Richmond. The 6-5 210-pounder, a Times-Dispatch second-team All-Metro pick in 2008 as a quarterback, committed orally to the Spiders yesterday. McGee is the third area player from the Class of 2010 who has orally committed to Richmond, which won the 2008 Football Championship Subdivision title.

The annual listing of “America’s Best Colleges” has given new bragging rights to Virginia schools. Several universities moved up in the ranks as U.S. News & World Report yesterday scored more than 1,400 schools nationwide in a wide range of categories. On the magazine’s list of best national universities, the University of Virginia was ranked 24th and the College of William and Mary was 33rd.

Edward Emerson Lane, a longtime member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Richmond and an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for attorney general in 1977, died Wednesday at his Richmond residence at age 85. The Richmond native had suffered from Parkinson’s disease. Mr. Lane, a Richmond lawyer, was chairman of the powerful budget-writing committee, the House Appropriations Committee, from 1973 to 1978.