recruiting board update

This was one strike away from happening on Monday, which would've been officially the beginning of the offseason if the RALLY had never happened.  And it would've taken awhile because I'd've been all depressed, reduced to one-finger hunt-and-peck, o...n...e...l...e...t...t...e...r...at... a... time.  Bleyah.

But lucky us, it's not the offseason just yet.  But recruiting rolls on, and Mike London added three (three!) commits since last we looked at this bloody thing.  It was camp weekend, see, and players rolled in and did their thing in front of the coaches, some got offers, and for some it was the Big One and committed on the spot, or nearly so.  Happens every year.

The big prize of the week, though, was somebody who we've had our eye on for almost a year now: big Michael Moore, son of WR coach and QB legend Shawn.  Moore and Moore, attorneys at law defenders extraordinaire, are forming a very solid defensive nucleus to the class.  Just wait'll Eli Harold joins the party.

Here are the changes to the board and map:

- Added WR Maurice Canady and QB Matt Johns to orange.  Looks like we got our QB for the class.  Interesting: Johns is a big guy with NFL size (once he puts on a little weight) and a strong arm.  When it comes to styles, the polar opposite of David Watford.

- Moved DE Michael Moore from blue to orange.  Moore, of course, is as legacyriffic as a legacy prospect ever gets, but even so, you beat Florida for a player, you got yourself a good one.

- Moved RB Chris Mangus and DT Tyrell Chavis from green to blue.  Mangus is a little bit green/blue borderline, but I'm not making a teal category and I figure the blue needs a little repopulation.  Chavis is definitely not borderline.  Oh, and I changed him from OG.

- Moved QB Brendan Nosovitch from yellow to red.  Guy's had a UVA offer since Februrary - at which time we were his only one - and dragged on, postponed visits, and generally sent the message that he really wanted other offers.  If he really did have genuine interest in UVA, it's probably too late, which is why....

- Removed QB Chad Voytik and QB Greyson Lambert from red.  We got a QB, I wasn't even sure we'd take one for sure, and now that we have one I really can't see us needing two.  Voytik, we kind of slow-played, and probably shouldn't have, but oh well.

- Removed DT Pat Gamble from yellow; committed to GT.  That plus another DT commitment to GT could really help out with Rod Chungong, though I still think he'll end up in Atlanta anyway.  But you remember Al Groh; not the sort to load up on one position.  When the door was closed, it was closed.  Then again, the buck doesn't stop with Groh at GT.

- Added DE Eli Ankou to green.

- Added OT Blake Fromang to yellow.

The other thing I've done is instituted the return of the most-wanted list.  I limited it to eight prospects, which there'll be at all times until there isn't room anymore for eight more players.  Those are highlighted in orange.  Consideration is given to

- talent (mostly star ratings)
- depth-chart need
- mass appeal (how many other schools are after them?)
- attainability (is the player someone that not only we definitely can get, but is also the kind of guy we shouldn't be letting get away?)
- and the need to keep them the hell away from Blacksburg and College Park and, to a lesser extent, Chapel Hill.

Players in red don't get consideration because that's I-want-a-pony land.

Here's who's on the list and why, and in no order except top to bottom on the board:

- WR Anthony Cooper: Virginia Beach guy, highly-ranked in the state, we need one really good wide receiver
- RB Chris Mangus: we definitely need one good running back, and Mangus has the big offer list (VT, ND, etc.)
- DE Eli Harold: maybe the top player in the state, and has been favoring UVA for so long it'd be a crushing blow to lose him now.  (No, I'm not real worried.)
- OT Adam Bisnowaty: star-wise the best O-lineman on the board
- MLB Kaiwan Lewis: hugely sought-after linebacker, would make this class just incredible at that position
- WR Stefon Diggs: five stars, dude
- LB Quanzell Lambert: see Kaiwan Lewis
- LB Ken Ekanem: see Kaiwan Lewis, and he's a top Virginian besides

If someone comes off the list, either by committing or by dropping out into red-land or committing elsewhere, they'll be replaced.  Eight at all times.

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Summer programming notes.  The Cavalier of the Year series continues on Thursday and finishes up on Saturday, and you'll have two weeks to vote on the winner.  Friday will be the first College World Series game preview - UVA plays Cal - and then this place will probably be all CWS, most of the time, til it's over for UVA.  Hopefully we don't go two or three and out.  What else is there?  A need to start profiling the 2012 football recruits, that's what.  Sometime next week we'll get to Mark Hall, the first of nine so far, and go from there.

Once the baseball team is done baseballing, that's when things get slow.  Which is probably good because I need to spend some time working my way through the videos I've been piling up.  By my count I have 12 highlights I've promised and totally not delivered on, and with any luck at all the baseball team will generate even more in the next couple weeks.  So if I skip a day here and there, that's why.  It's for the greater good.  Oh, and of course there's my summer hiatus which starts on the second-to-last weekend in July this year and goes til the middle of the following week.  After that, guess what - FOOTBALL SEASON IS GO.  Previews of every ACC team and every team on the schedule.  Only seven weeks away, can you believe that?