recruiting board update

I hate myself for the lame title. I try to write interesting ones. Today that's all we got though. That and the below bits o' fluff.

- A little something on Brian Ownby's stint with the national U-20 team in U-20 World Cup qualifiers.

- Article from the CDP on Mike Timms.

- A look at how UVA figures to fare in the NFL draft this weekend. Totally unrelated complaint: I really hate that they moved the third round to the second day. The draft used to start at 12 noon and roll til about 8, which made it a perfect way to completely waste a Saturday afternoon and left plenty of evening time for, y'know, evening activities. It's not like you had to be in front of the TV the whole time - you just crack a beer, wander in and out of the room all day, and in my case, shoot a little pool because we had a pool table in the living room in college. 4-10 PM is a crappy time for the draft. Terrible. And the third and fourth rounds were the perfect border between first- and second-day picks. They messed it up, they really did.

- Speaking of the draft, I guess I wrote my please-pick-Eugene post too late. The Lions appear to be negotiating only with three players: Stafford, Curry, and Smith; and are trying very hard by the way to add to the rather impressive list of shitty picks they've made this decade.

OK, so I lied - that was kind of a lot. Anyway here's what's changed in the recruiting picture; the board is now duly updated for your viewing pleasure.

- Dropped QB Philip Sims (committed to Alabama (dammit)), WR Justin Hunter (there's really no interest on his end), and OT Mark Shuman (committed to Tech.) By all accounts the Shumans are a Hokie family through and through; Shuman was going to stay uncommitted for only as long as it took him to work up the nerve to call Latrell Scott and tell him no.

- Added LB Jordan Paskorz to blue. This could be interesting to watch; Paskorz names us in a top three ($) which is why he rockets to the blue section immediately; one of those other three is Michigan, however, from whom he claims an offer. The problem with that is that Michigan is one of those schools that, when they offer, it starts to attract other vultures to the show.

- Added OG Brandon Sacco to yellow. We're Sacco's first offer ($), but he plays at a high-profile place high school and chances are he'll wait to see what other offer letters show up on the kitchen table before he starts sorting anyone out.

- Added DE Dakota Royer and LB Chris Smith to red. Royer has like a zillion offers. Smith named a top four and none of those top four are located in Charlottesville, which ordinarily would mean he wouldn't even get added, but three of his four haven't actually offered yet (and at least one seems like kind of a pipe dream) and he is a teammate of Kevin Parks, so I added him without any reasonable expectation he'll actually commit here.