the recruit: Conner Davis

Name: Conner Davis
Position: OT
Hometown: Glen Allen
School: Deep Run
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 270

ESPN: 75
Rivals: three stars, 5.7, #45 OT
Scout: three stars, #60 OT

Davis' recruitment is sort of the mirror image of Mark Shuman's. You'll recall, Shuman is a Tech fan indoctrinated by a Tech family, but Al Groh managed to intrigue him just enough to get him on Grounds for a return visit, making the journey a little more interesting than it was supposed to be. Davis is the opposite. He grew up in orange and blue, but VPI made it annoyingly close for a little while there.

Actually, Clemson could have made it tough too, if they'd offered. Davis visited Clemson, enjoyed it greatly (he's kinda liked Clemson for a long time) but he got no offer, and that's when his recruitment entered the homestretch. Even without a Clemson offer, he was getting attention all up and down the East Coast.

Davis is one of those guys that's listed at OT because that's where a high school's best lineman plays, but where he plays at UVA is going to depend a little bit on how he grows. He's got room for a few more pounds, although it's hard to say how many because the scouting services are apparently throwing darts and guessing at his weight. He's bigger than the 260 Scout gives him credit for, probably not quite 280 like Rivals says, but he's tall and he'll be there eventually so why not.

A redshirt year is about as close to a guarantee as you'll ever see. We only graduate one lineman this year (Will Barker) and last year's lineman class was enormous, even without Morgan Moses which is looking likelier and likelier. ESPN says he "should develop into a starter late in his career" which is as much because of the logjam a year ahead of him as anything else. Still, he's got talent and fits very, very nicely into the class we've got going so far on offense - one of everything at this point.