weekend review

Maybe we should lose more often. Two weekends, two losses, two commitments - one football (Matt Bailey for 2011) and one basketball (James Johnson.) Then again I probably don't have to worry that we won't keep losing.

The news and happenings from over the weekend.

- The soccer team got in on the losing action too, but at least it was close, and in an atmosphere conducive to recruiting. Unlike the football team. Tomorrow is Mount St. Cupcake, and then a trip to Wake Forest for our last crack at an ACC team before Brian Ownby departs for the land of the pyramids.

- Your quarterback is now officially Jameel Sewell. This, I think, is primarily by default, as Vic Hall shows no signs of being healthy in time for, I dunno, October, and Marc Verica would be slaughtered as long as the offensive line keeps failing to pass block. Sewell obviously didn't do much to put a grip on the job (though he's not to blame for the loss either) but until the line learns to stop other linemen from coming near the quarterback, having one that can scramble only makes good sense.

- Jeff White always has a lot of good stuff, but one thing really struck me from yesterday's article: that bomb to Javaris Brown (don't get excited, TCU had their second string in for that one) was the longest pass play UVA's run since November 26, 2005. That's the most detail he gives, but given the date that would probably be a VT game. Let me go do some of that research stuff.....

....

....OK, back. No, it was Miami, and it was a trick play, Emmanuel Byers to Deyon Williams. 90 yards, so I would suspect that most long pass plays in the future will be called "the longest since November 26, 2005" because that's pretty hard to beat.

- Remember I said yesterday that three out of the next four games was a doable feat, and so we shouldn't get all the way down quite yet? I forgot that three of the next four are also on the road. You know how that goes. Consider the three-for-four trick at least three times more difficult. Indiana is the lone home game, and it's Homecoming or Alumni Weekend or whatever different name they call it these days. It was called Homecoming when I was going to school, but when I was going to school they weren't banning signs and raising Power of Orange flags and unashamedly abbreviating it POO, so if this semi-batshit organization decided to call it Donation Weekend it wouldn't surprise me.

And by the way, Indiana being Homecoming is double-hilarious if like me you're a Big Ten fan, because Indiana tends to hop from Homecoming to Homecoming on their road trips around the conference. It's kind of a Big Ten tradition to invite your alumni back to campus to quaff beer and enjoy another 30-point stomping of Indiana. Lucky indeed is the school that gets Northwestern and Indiana at home on alternating years.

Again there isn't much to do on the recruiting board, but there are a few changes so whatever, here you go:

- CB James Scales committed to Oregon. Bye then.

- S Nick Dew drops to red until such time as he commits to Virginia Tech. And if I had a full list of recruits at the game Saturday, they'd all drop to red, because that atmosphere was recruiting poison.

You'll see a new column on the board, which is empty. Ignore it for now. It's a project I'm working on.....slowly. When it comes to fruition, I'll fill it in and provide all necessary explanations. Til now, the board is the same friendly ol' board you've always known.

Time for the high school section. Here's how our recruits did over the weekend:

KEVIN PARKS: Hoss again. 221 yards on 31 carries, and scored both his team's touchdowns in a 14-7 win.

E.J. SCOTT: Again did not figure much in the offense. Good Counsel won 42-0 but Scott's only stat was a single rushing attempt for nine yards.

RYAN COBB: Don Bosco crushed the better-known De La Salle, 30-6. Link offers a photo slideshow that features Cobb reasonably heavily.

HENRY COLEY: Recovered a fumble and helped Bayside hold third-ranked Cox to single digits in a 28-9 win.

RIJO WALKER: Big day - Walker caught three passes for 77 yards and one touchdown and scored another touchdown running back the kickoff to start the second half. Bethel won 55-0.

Tomorrow we'll profile the newest basketball-playin' Wahoo, James Johnson. Well, either tomorrow or Wednesday, but probably tomorrow unless stuff happens. Should be exciting, because Johnson's a big-time prospect.